대한민국 가금류 독감: 또 시작이다… / Poultry Flu in the Republic of Korea: Here We Go Again…

“Disproportionately blaming wild birds for the introduction and spread of the virus, as has happened during previous outbreaks of H5N1 HPAI, can lead to less focused disease control activities and potential spread of virus.  The media, academics and human and animal health agencies are requested to act responsibly when considering the role of wild birds and avian influenza and avoid implication of them as the source of the virus if the evidence does not support this.”

Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds, Public Statement, Jan. 28^th 2014.

During June, there have been several new outbreaks of H5N8 avian influenza (“Poultry Flu”) reported at poultry farms here in the Republic of Korea (ROK). According to one of the nation’s leading newspapers, The Korea Times, the first outbreak was in Hongseong in the north (Na 2014); then in Muan in the southwest; and now in Daegu, towards the southeast (Kim 2014). Despite the lack of any evidence to support such assertions, these outbreaks of Poultry Flu are still being linked by media to movements of migratory birds. On June 18^th, for example, Kim Se-Jeong reported that “Studies are underway to keep track of infection routes, as many believe migratory birds are to blame”.

It seems highly unlikely that media would want intentionally to misinform the general public about this disease, against the explicit advice of expert bodies like the Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds (“The AI Scientific Task Force”). After all, this is an issue with multiple environmental, economic and public safety implications. H5N8 Poultry Flu has been economically devastating to some farmers and culling causes additional unnecessary suffering to huge numbers of poultry. Moreover, Highly Pathogenic H5N1 – also found and spread through the poultry industry (and with recent outbreaks in the DPRK) – is dangerous to people as well as to birds.

Nonetheless, the belief here in the ROK that migratory birds should be blamed for spreading the disease seems to be as persistent as the outbreaks themselves and some media reporting continues to encourage this belief. In past outbreaks and again in January, when H5N8 last reached its peak, many domestic officials and media were quick to blame migratory ducks and geese for the outbreaks. Somehow, it was claimed, wild birds carried the virus from somewhere else into the nation; they then repeatedly penetrated bio-secure farms to infect poultry, without ever being seen or found within these same farms; and they then continued to spread the same disease nationwide, wherever they went.

Birds Korea has done its best over the years to provide best information (at public meetings, in open letters and in private correspondence to key officials and to the media, including The Korea Times – most recently in January and June this year), to make clear that claims of wild birds infecting poultry were not and have not been supported by any scientific evidence. The majority of experts and media worldwide too already understand that this is a disease primarily of the poultry industry. Only last week, BBC News published research that identified areas most likely to sustain avian influenza viruses based entirely on the distribution and size of poultry farms (Gallagher 2014). And back in January, The AI Scientific Task Force, comprised of some of the world’s leading experts on the disease (including representatives from the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation) stated unambiguously that, “To date, global wild bird surveillance efforts have never detected this (H5N8) strain of avian influenza virus in wild birds”.

This needs repeating, here and in mainstream media reporting: H5N8 had never before been found in wild birds, until a few birds became infected by the disease here in the ROK (presumably after coming into contact with infected waste from poultry farms). Moreover, exactly as we predicted, the same geese and ducks then failed to spread the disease to neighboring countries once they migrated north toward breeding grounds. Instead, the outbreaks remained within the ROK – with outbreaks also found to the south, in Japan.

So why do we continue to have outbreaks here in the ROK, when many other countries seem able to control such outbreaks more quickly? It might be worth noting that the AI Scientific Task Force links the misreporting of outbreaks to “less focused disease control activities and potential spread of virus”. Either way, it should be clear by now: blaming wild birds, closing off wetlands and spraying them with disinfectants have not eradicated the virus. Instead, three months after the peak of duck and goose migration through the ROK has passed, H5N8 still persists within poultry here. And once more it is spreading farm to farm. At least, in the latest outbreak in Daegu, the infected “farm is known to have bought 107 baby geese from a farm in Hongseong on June 14” (Kim 2014).

So again, for the sake of the nation’s birds and farmers, and to help avoid future potentially more deadly disease outbreaks, we respectfully urge media and officials to listen to the advice of the AI Scientific Task Force and other leading global experts: please act responsibly.