Mexico Slaughters 8 Million H7N3 Influenza-Infected Chickens

 

Mexico is embroiled in an effort to contain an outbreak of a strain of bird flu in the west of the country.

Agriculture Ministry officials announced last Tuesday that they have already vaccinated 66 million chickens and killed 8 million infected chickens in the egg-producing Los Altos region. Mexico plans a two-phase vaccination program that would vaccinate 80 million more chickens in the first phase. The second phase would be conducted after an evaluation of the first.

The outbreak of the H7N3 bird flu strain was first detected in Los Altos on June 20. At the beginning of July, Mexico declared an animal health emergency. Subsequently, prices of eggs and chickens increased sharply. The Mexican poultry industry has already lost $50 million since June.

Even though the disease is so far confined to the Los Altos region, the ramifications of this outbreak reach beyond Mexico’s borders. Authorities in neighboring Guatemala have beefed up checks on its border to prevent the spreading of the virus strain.

According to the United Nations, the H7N3 virus rarely infects humans and is not known to be easily transmittable between humans. However, viruses are prone to mutations, and other strains like H5N1 and H1N1 have already been fatal to humans. Former World Health Organization Director-General Dr. LEE Jong-wook, warned back in 2005: “It is only a matter of time before an avian flu virus—most likely H5N1—acquires the ability to be transmitted from human to human, sparking the outbreak of human pandemic influenza.” He added:

We don’t know when this will happen. But we do know that it will happen.This is the time to build global consensus. This is the time for every country to prepare their national action plan—and act on it.In the pandemics of 1958 and 1968, a combined total of 3 million people died. Those were considered to be mild pandemics.In 2003, in the sars epidemic, fewer than 800 people died. Yet the economic consequences have been assessed at more than $30 billion worldwide. It was a major social, political, economic and health event.If we are unprepared, the next pandemic will cause incalculable human misery. Both directly from the loss of human life, and indirectly through its widespread impact on security. No society would be exempt. No economy would be left unscathed.

An avian flu pandemic is potentially disastrous to birds, humans, societies and economies. In a world cursed with divisions and economic turmoil, building global consensus and action plans would be moving in the right direction. But more important would be gaining an understanding of the real reason behind these coming disease pandemics.