Bird Flu Spread By Fish Farms?

ALASKA - Bird flu may be spread by using chicken manure as food in fish farms, that's according to Birdlife International, the worlds leading bird conservation organization in 100 countries.

Fertilizing fish farms with poop is a common practice in developing countries. It involves transferring waste from pigs, ducks, or chickens directly to fish farms. At the right dosage the nutrients in the manure give an enormous boost to the plankton growing in the ponds which are the main food for fish such as carp, and increasingly popular Talipia.

But Birdlife says the practice may set up major reservoirs of bird flu infection if the poultry providing the poop are infected themselves.

The suggestion has the echoes of the mad cow scare when cattle were infected by their food. And the practice puts a big question mark over a procedure that is firmly backed by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

Source: Alaska Report

20 June 2006