Experts grill concerns over meat's role in Avian Flu spread

Australians have a deep-seated love for our barbecues and the sizzle of a good steak.

However, recent developments in the world of animal farming and disease may give you pause the next time you reach for that cut of meat.

A new strain of avian influenza, which has been wreaking havoc across the globe, has been linked to the industrial farming practices that supply much of our meat.


The world's appetite for meat has been growing; however, this demand has led to farming conditions that may be less than ideal.

Cramped and sometimes unsanitary conditions are unfortunately common in modern farming, and experts are now suggesting that these environments are the perfect breeding grounds for viruses to mutate into more dangerous forms.


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The rise in meat consumption was linked to a severe strain of avian flu affecting birds worldwide, now spreading to other animals, including humans. Credits: Shutterstock


Professor Peter Collignon, an Infectious Diseases Expert at the Australian National University and Canberra Hospital, is a meat lover himself.

However, he raised significant concerns about the industrial farming methods that stock supermarket shelves and fast-food outlets with affordable animal products.

He pointed out that the routine use of antibiotics in these settings is a red flag, indicating underlying issues with the farming practices.

‘My own view is you need to give antibiotics to animals if they're sick. But if you're having to do it routinely and feed it to 1000 animals at a time, there is a problem with your farming practice,’ Professor Collignon stated.

‘Using antibiotics to fix problems is because you need to change your methods to prevent that from happening. It could be vaccination, but it could be less crowding and changing feeding habits.’


The situation escalated to the point where last month, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) strain was reported to have spread to cows in Texas.

Collignon suspected this cross-species jump might be due to the practice, allowed in the US, of feeding cows waste from chicken sheds—a practice not permitted in Australia.

‘One of the things that worries me is in the US (United States) they are allowed to feed them litter, which is a mixture of waste from chicken. And in birds, the main way flu is spread is faecal-oral,’ Professor Collignon explained.

‘The problem now in the US is giving cows food they wouldn’t normally eat. Look at Mad Cow Disease in England, we turned cows into meat eaters—we fed them sheep.’


Peter Stevenson OBE, Chief Policy Advisor at Compassion in World Farming, had been sounding the alarm on this issue.

Nine months ago, his organization warned that avian flu was a ‘ticking time bomb’ and called for mass vaccinations of poultry and reforms in industrialized poultry and pig farming systems.

Mr Stevenson highlighted the ‘very, very strong link’ between poor animal husbandry and the emergence of zoonotic pandemics and suggested that farming is likely to have contributed to the increase and spread of HPAI.

‘In the large poultry sheds, there are a huge number of birds which are hosts for the virus. It can move very quickly amongst them, perhaps mutating as it does so,’ he explained.

‘That highly pathogenic bird flu can then get out of the poultry sheds, for example, through ventilation systems, and infect wild birds. So you’re getting a virus that’s continually evolving.’

‘At the core of it is the keeping of poultry in very crowded, stressful conditions. These are birds that are not particularly in good health. Both the egg flock and the meat flock—the broilers—have been genetically selected for either very high egg production or very fast growth rates, and this is putting a huge stress on them, so these are relatively frail birds, very vulnerable to disease,’ Mr Stevenson continued.


As concerns grow over the spread of avian flu, it's important to recognise the various factors contributing to its transmission.

While migratory birds pose a significant risk, the potential for the disease to enter Australia is compounded by other factors, including the global movement of goods and people.

This highlights the need for proactive measures to protect vulnerable bird populations in Australia, as discussed in a previous report about the threat of avian flu carried by migrating birds.
Key Takeaways
  • The increasing consumption of meat has been connected to a serious strain of avian influenza that is affecting birds globally and has now jumped to other animals, including humans.
  • Industrial farming practices and the use of preventive antibiotics were under scrutiny as they might contribute to the mutation of viruses into more dangerous forms.
  • Professor Peter Collignon, an Infectious Diseases Expert at the Australian National University and Canberra Hospital, raised concerns about cross-species transmission, citing how cows in the US had been affected potentially due to being fed poultry waste.
  • Advocates called for reforms in poultry and pig farming, including mass vaccinations and improved animal husbandry, to prevent the risk and spread of zoonotic diseases.
Have you changed your meat consumption habits in light of these concerns? Do you think more should be done to ensure the safety and ethics of our meat supply? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.
 
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My initial instinct is to file this away with all the other hyperbolic stories of climate change doom and gloom, deadly viruses, aliens, and even caring politicians. But I have seen other articles related to antibiotic use in production animals and the potential issues there of and think it has some merit . But why is there a need for these intensive production practices? Business are quite content to drive an artificial demand by deceptive and persuasive advertising practices that compel people to eat far more than they need, all in the interest of making money regardless of the consequences. The extremely obese population of most western countries a case in point. Is is it because business lack any morals , ethics, or understanding of too much, or is it a gross lack of personal responsibility or commonsense regarding ones own health and well being .
It's just money, we're all greedy c--ts, we want money, more money, gimmee gimmee more.
 
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Umm he didn't say "Is Being sold" he Said " has long favoured selling off" Maybe read articles more closely and not jump to conclusions.
"Being sold", "long favoured selling off". Either way it isn't, but thanks for your input. :rolleyes:
 
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It's just money, we're all greedy c--ts, we want money, more money, gimmee gimmee more.
That's one of the reasons Albo is wasting tax payers monies on his pet dream of bringing manufacturing. In another couple of years the Chinese will be in the same boat and manufacturing will move to another poor country, downtrodden by it's political elite shitehawks.
 
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Where on earth have you copied all this nonsense from? Where does it say the NHS is being sold? :rolleyes: And where does it say the UK is buying American meat and allowing them to buy UK farms? :rolleyes: You should keep off the dodgy untrue websites.
I lived in the UK for 10 years, while residing in a rural district.
I observed the outbreaks of hoof and mouth disease. Where the cattle farmers were forced to kill and dispose of by burning the majority of their livestock.
While this was going on I also observed the supermarket shelves were subsequently stocked with American meats and it was almost impossible to buy local meat.

I also lived in the district that held an American research centre hidden in the countryside where they were experimenting with cattle diseases. This was also the epicentre of the outbreak of Hoof and Mouth disease where ancient drainage ditches flowed out of the research centre grounds into surrounding pastures.
The native deer were then blamed for the spread of this disease.
The UK farmers were not permitted to treat their cattle with the vaccine for Hoof and Mouth disease that the European cattle breeders, successfully treated their livestock with.
These events had also come just after the outbreaks of Mad Cow disease which also helped destroy the UK meat industry. And filled supermarket shelves with beef from the USA
This destroyed a lot of UK farmers ability to keep farming and they were forced to sell
their properties for ridiculously low prices
Or forced to find other employment to subsidise their incomes just to retain their employment just to retain their properties.

I did not find this information on any website but experienced it personally.
 
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Where on earth have you copied all this nonsense from? Where does it say the NHS is being sold? :rolleyes: And where does it say the UK is buying American meat and allowing them to buy UK farms? :rolleyes: You should keep off the dodgy untrue websites.
Another big hype to get people to give up meat!! Not me!! So many think we should all become Vegan. They come up with all these ridiculous stories!!
 
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Wish I could, the small amount of meat I can afford would not give me a cold rather than avian flu
 
Well what do you expect, these poor animals are locked up in squalid conditions, where they should be roaming free like they used to, then also there is still the caged hens which is horrid, farmers can be so cruel and all for the mighty dollar greed.
 
I only buy meat directly from the butcher from the Tablelands in FNQ. Their shop is just outside the entry of Coles where I only buy the absolute necessary. Never any ready or frozen food. Even fish or seafood, I am extremely careful what I pick. Food eating program is a challenge for me especially as I undergo cancer treatment. In all it does surprise me what many are capable of eating especially junk food which also stinks terribly.
 
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American farming practices are appallingly bad. They came to my attention during the Brexit debacle in Britain. The UK in its jingoistic fervour to "go it alone" failed to secure trade deals even comparable to the market of almost 450 million people that half the blinkered people were led to believe they wanted nothing more to do with!

The British Tory party has long favoured selling off the National Health Service and the USA follows closely with pharmaceutical and financial giants waiting to pick the bones once the NHS is dead. The American Trade Deal with the UK was not what anyone would expect from two (supposedly) very close friends.

The terms of the American deal, when the NHS is dead are that it will take over the profitable bits and replace the scheme with the money-grabbing car crash that is the American model. In addition, the UK is to buy American meat and chicken and to allow American farming giants to buy UK farms and meat processing plants. No ifs, no buts, any dissention = no deal.

American beef is infested with hormones and chickens are farmed in such cruel and dirty conditions that their meat has to be chlorinated.

Farmers with half an eye on ethics can never compete against the sort of unprincipled capitalism that the USA espouses and which, if let loose, will be unfettered.

Australia and the rest of the world: DO NOT GO DOWN THIS DIRTY PATH!
It does not surprise me that most Americans are obese alone for their bad eating habits.
 
My initial instinct is to file this away with all the other hyperbolic stories of climate change doom and gloom, deadly viruses, aliens, and even caring politicians. But I have seen other articles related to antibiotic use in production animals and the potential issues there of and think it has some merit . But why is there a need for these intensive production practices? Business are quite content to drive an artificial demand by deceptive and persuasive advertising practices that compel people to eat far more than they need, all in the interest of making money regardless of the consequences. The extremely obese population of most western countries a case in point. Is is it because business lack any morals , ethics, or understanding of too much, or is it a gross lack of personal responsibility or commonsense regarding ones own health and well being .
There are three answers to your questions money money and more money.
 
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American farming practices are appallingly bad. They came to my attention during the Brexit debacle in Britain. The UK in its jingoistic fervour to "go it alone" failed to secure trade deals even comparable to the market of almost 450 million people that half the blinkered people were led to believe they wanted nothing more to do with!

The British Tory party has long favoured selling off the National Health Service and the USA follows closely with pharmaceutical and financial giants waiting to pick the bones once the NHS is dead. The American Trade Deal with the UK was not what anyone would expect from two (supposedly) very close friends.

The terms of the American deal, when the NHS is dead are that it will take over the profitable bits and replace the scheme with the money-grabbing car crash that is the American model. In addition, the UK is to buy American meat and chicken and to allow American farming giants to buy UK farms and meat processing plants. No ifs, no buts, any dissention = no deal.

American beef is infested with hormones and chickens are farmed in such cruel and dirty conditions that their meat has to be chlorinated.

Farmers with half an eye on ethics can never compete against the sort of unprincipled capitalism that the USA espouses and which, if let loose, will be unfettered.

Australia and the rest of the world: DO NOT GO DOWN THIS DIRTY PATH!
Good on you mate.
 
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Another big hype to get people to give up meat!! Not me!! So many think we should all become Vegan. They come up with all these ridiculous stories!!
Yes nothing like a bit of fear porn to terrify the uninformed masses. If it's written or reported in the mass media the gullible believe every word. I'm a happy, disgustingly healthy carnivore and I'll be staying that way.
 
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They want us to eat insects.
Surely that will fix the problem.

After all who ever heard of insects carrying disease, eating diseased flesh/blood or comming into contact with faecal mater?
No wait a minute...
You could have cockroaches dipped in chocolate as a treat :)
 

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