Eutrusca
15-04-2006, 16:00
COMMENTARY: So now it appears that one of the primary means of spreading bird flu is in chickens smuggled across international borders. I suspect that as borders become increasingly porous, we are going to see more and more infectious diseases spread this way.
Your thoughts on possible solutions?
Bird Flu Virus May Be Spread by Smuggling (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/world/europe/15bird.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin)
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: April 15, 2006
MILAN — Two vans of undercover police inspectors pulled up at a storefront in Milan in March, their target neither terrorists nor drugs.
China is the source of much of the live poultry and poultry products smuggled into Europe and Africa. China also has widespread bird flu cases.
Picking their way through a refrigerator at the back of a Chinese grocery store off a piazza, the agents found their quarry: bags of duck feet.
This followed a similar raid at a Milan warehouse a few months ago that yielded three million packages of chicken meat smuggled from China.
There is increasing evidence that a thriving international trade in smuggled poultry — including live birds, chicks and meat — is helping spread bird flu, experts say.
Poultry smuggling is a huge business that poses a unique threat: The (A)H5N1 bird flu virus is robust enough to survive not just in live birds but also in frozen meat, feathers, bones and even on cages, though it dies with cooking.
"No one knows the real numbers, but they are large," said Timothy E. Moore, director of federal projects at the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center at Kansas State University.
[ This is only a portion of the article (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/world/europe/15bird.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin). ]
Your thoughts on possible solutions?
Bird Flu Virus May Be Spread by Smuggling (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/world/europe/15bird.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin)
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: April 15, 2006
MILAN — Two vans of undercover police inspectors pulled up at a storefront in Milan in March, their target neither terrorists nor drugs.
China is the source of much of the live poultry and poultry products smuggled into Europe and Africa. China also has widespread bird flu cases.
Picking their way through a refrigerator at the back of a Chinese grocery store off a piazza, the agents found their quarry: bags of duck feet.
This followed a similar raid at a Milan warehouse a few months ago that yielded three million packages of chicken meat smuggled from China.
There is increasing evidence that a thriving international trade in smuggled poultry — including live birds, chicks and meat — is helping spread bird flu, experts say.
Poultry smuggling is a huge business that poses a unique threat: The (A)H5N1 bird flu virus is robust enough to survive not just in live birds but also in frozen meat, feathers, bones and even on cages, though it dies with cooking.
"No one knows the real numbers, but they are large," said Timothy E. Moore, director of federal projects at the National Agricultural Biosecurity Center at Kansas State University.
[ This is only a portion of the article (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/world/europe/15bird.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin). ]