A little over a year ago, I wrote about how . or signup to continue reading This May, the Victorian Department of Health confirmed that the first Australian case of human A(H5N1) avian influenza, a highly pathogenic strain, had sent a toddler to intensive care in Melbourne. Little more has been said about this case, but as avian influenza has infected at least 10 Australian poultry farms in the past month and a half, it's time to face the very real possibility that our desire for drumsticks is about to bite us in the tail feather in a big way.
Already this year, more than 1 million farmed birds have been killed in an attempt to curb the spread of avian flu. It's not just the 700 million chickens and 30 million ducks Australia slaughters for their flesh each year who are at risk - the outbreak has had a devastating impact on wild birds, too, and a plan is being formulated to protect Phillip Island's little penguins from contracting the virus. They wouldn't be the first penguins to fall victim - in January, bird flu was detected, for the first time, .
And we can't afford to write this off as a problem "for the birds": the highly pathogenic H5N1strain has also been detected in cows, foxes, opossums, bears, and even dolphins in the US. This strain is believed to have originated on a commercial goose farm in China, and its worldwide spread should remind us that as long as we confine birds for any human use, disease will make its way to wild vectors whose migration makes them power.
