Birdbrained authorities

The bird-flu scare in India is another example of how panic reaction by the authorities can mess up a situation. The avian influenza (AI), however dreadful, does not exist in India.

Indigenous poultry products are as safe to eat as they ever have been. And yet a needless officially-sponsored scare has been created that has spelt peril for the Rs 30,000-crore (Rs 300 billion) poultry industry.

While the sale of poultry products have dropped, the expenses of poultry farmers have risen due to inventory build-up and high feed cost, threatening the survival of this industry.

Instead of reassuring the world that India is free of this viral disease and that adequate measures are being taken to prevent its entry into the country, the different wings of the government have chosen to cause alarm through moves like declaring a red alert and deploying the Border Security Force to cope with the situation.

The World Health Organisation has compounded this alarm by issuing a general advisory that people should not eat raw poultry products (as if they were eating raw chicken earlier).

Many a discerning consumer, unaware that the bird-flu infection is not transmitted through cooked food to humans, has given up eating chicken. Many restaurants have also stopped serving chicken dishes. The drop in egg consumption, mercifully, is not that steep.

According to veterinarians, AI is essentially a disease of birds caused by the RNA virus (oxythomyxoviridae). It can, in serious form, be fatal for birds like chicken, turkeys, guinea fowls and other avian species, including migratory water fowl. The disease is known variously as bird flu, avian flu, fowl pest, fowl plague and avian influenza.

Though different strains of this viral infection have been reported from 11 south Asian and Asian countries, the relatively more virulent strains, chiefly H5N1, have remained confined largely to south Asia alone. The H5N1 infection is known to be communicable to humans and can potentially be fatal for them as well.

But the bird-flu virus detected in our immediate neighbourhood -- in Pakistan -- belongs largely to the H9 and H7 strains that are relatively less virulent with low chances of being transmitted to humans.

This is borne out by the fact that this disease has existed in Pakistan, causing heavy bird mortality year after year since 1992, but has not caused any health hazard for humans.

In any case, all forms of this virus spread from one object to another only through live carriers of infection (live birds) as the virus is excreted either through faeces or respiration and travels through air.

Besides, the AI is essentially a fragile virus that cannot survive at temperatures higher than 20 degrees centigrade and, therefore, gets killed in ordinary cooking.

This apart, it can even be neutralised by washing with soap or other detergents. And, as has now been confirmed by the WHO, all the forms of flu virus are non-communicable from human to human.

The only danger -- and this is hypothetical -- is that if the avian flu virus mutates with the human influenza virus, it may produce a new strain that may be dangerous for humans.

Fortunately, the chances of the virus entering India are low, for several reasons. The country is self-sufficient in all aspects of poultry and imports of all poultry-related products have been banned.

Several bio-safety measures have already been put in place. Migratory birds, which can be possible carriers of the flu virus, do not come to India during this part of the year from the region reporting the AI epidemic.

Moreover, poultry farms and hatcheries are scattered and there is little chance of poultry birds coming in contact with migratory birds.

Indeed, if the correct picture of domestic poultry health is projected, the current bird-flu menace can be converted into an opportunity for the local industry to expand exports.

India is the world's fourth-largest poultry producer, though the bulk of the poultry farms are relatively small, keeping up to 2,000 birds. The scope for expanding the production base to cater to larger exports is substantial.

However, at present, there are no more than three or four poultry-dressing plants that meet international quality standards. But since even these are at present operating at lower than their rated capacity, they can raise the supplies for exports.

Exploratory import inquiries are said to have begun to come from west Asia and other poultry importing markets vacated by traditional exporters like Thailand and Vietnam.

All that is needed to gainfully exploit this opportunity is to restore consumer confidence in Indian poultry products. Otherwise, not only will the export potential remain unexploited but the domestic industry and consumer will also suffer for no reason.

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