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Dead Birds Don't Fly:
An Avian Flu Primer for Small-Scale Farmers
WESTON A. PRICE FOUNDATION
INFORMATION ALERT
May 18, 2006
Avian flu's rapid spread across Asia and Europe has heightened concerns
that the disease will arrive in North America soon. By acting now, small-scale
poultry farmers in the U.S. can reduce the risk to their operation of
contracting the disease, according to a primer by Institute for Agriculture
and Trade Policy (IATP).
Dead Birds Don't Fly: An Avian Flu Primer for Small-Scale Farmers,
by Lindsey Hillesheim, Ph.D., educates farmers with free-range or pastured
poultry operations about the basic biology of avian influenza in birds
and humans to help evaluate the risk of an avian flu infection in their
flock. Although every farm is unique and its response will be different,
the primer offers a basic description of H5N1 avian flu, how it can
spread, how to reduce infection risks in poultry and workers, and appropriate
responses during an outbreak.
"Free-range and organic poultry have an advantage over their
caged-raised counterparts in regards to the resilience of their immune
systems," said Steve Suppan, Ph.D., IATP's Director of Research.
"Free-range birds are constantly exposed to low levels of pathogens
that naturally reside in the environment and this exposure further strengthens
their immune system. Many of the poultry lines employed by free-range
farmers have been bred to live outdoors and resist infection."
To download the Primer, please link to
http://www.agobservatory.org/library.cfm?refid=80410
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