The Global Food Industry is Ramping up Biosecurity Efforts to Minimize the Impact of Another Outbreak Bird Flu

Earlier this month, the deadly H797 avian flu virus was detected in a market stall in the Tuen Mun area of Hong Kong, forcing authorities to cull 4,500 birds to stop the spread of the virus wreaking havoc.

 

The avian flu virus, which has accounted for the mass culling of 20,000 birds in Hong Kong in the past two years, is particularly worrying for the authorities as it can easily go undetected as it does not always kill infected chickens or cause them to manifest symptoms.

 

There are two types of avian influenza:  low pathogenic and highly pathogenic, which is easier to detect than low pathogenic because mortality in birds is more sudden.

 

Pathogenicity refers to the ability of the virus to produce disease.

 

Hong Kong is not alone: Egypt, China, the UK and the US have all suffered at the hands of bird flu in recent years, devastating not only farming communities but more broadly the food industry and the wider economy.

 

Such devastation that can be reaped by avian flu is prompting farmers, slaughterhouses and poultry processes to up their biosecurity efforts.

 

The food industry is now investing millions in upgrading poultry processing plants to ensure its food safety and hygiene standards are dialled up to the maximum.

 

It is easy to see why such investment is taking place.

 

The 2015 H5N2 avian flu outbreak in the US, the worse in US history, not only led to the slaughter of nearly 50 million birds across a  dozen states but cost the US $2.6 billion in lost sales, around $400m in lost taxes and nearly 16,000 jobs, according to a study.

 

What is most worrying for the food industry is that the outbreak, said to be caused by migrating waterfowl's droppings, wrought such devastation but scientists and governments workers in the US are still unable to determine how so many individual farms became infected so quickly and how the virus spread so far and wide, despite individual farms making every effort to ensure they were protected against such a virus.

 

When avian flu is detected in a single bird on a chicken farm, the protocol is for an entire farm's population to be destroyed to prevent the infection from spreading.

 

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Suzanne McMillain, a director of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, believes the mass slaughter of animals is inextricably linked to how they are reared in close proximity to each other.

 

She said: "It's reasonable when we see these outbreaks to wonder if they are a manifestation of the unsustainability of the system.”

 

“Bird flu is a window into how today's poultry flocks live day to day, in intensive confinement and unsanitary conditions. It’s an unnatural, unsustainable situation."

 

However, the egg producing system in the US is designed to protect birds from contamination. For example, workers who work on such farms adhere to strict hygiene controls, such as showering before the enter hen houses.

 

In the US, when an infected bird is found it is quarantined, as the farmers work with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to work out how best to kill the flock exposed to the virus.

 

The USDA has only approved euthanasia by carbon-dioxide gas for killing chickens housed in cages while a water-based foam is used to kill chickens not housed in cages.

 

Euthanasia by foam is said to be minimally stressful on birds and is the most cost-effective option, though some argue there are more humane alternatives, such as the use of gases like argon and nitrogen.

 

Weather conditions can prove a key determining factor in the level of impact of avian flu. For example, the virus is weakened by warm, dry, sunny conditions which can help kill the virus but cooler, damper weather helps the virus spread.

 

Some believe the impact of an outbreak of avian flu can be reduced by unifying health standards, as well as introducing improved guidelines for vehicle disinfection.

 

Randy Olson, executive director of the Iowa Poultry Association, which suffered particularly badly from the 2015 outbreak, told the Des Moines Register: "We need to learn lessons from this outbreak and modify biosecurity to minimise future outbreaks.”

 

“This disease does not discriminate. We've seen it in backyard flocks; we’ve seen it in wild cards; we’ve seen it all types of commercial housing."

 

Others argue that there has been a lack of central government funding in biosecurity for livestock helping prevent the disease.

 

The impact on the farming economy following an outbreak can be wide-spread, as it can be a long-winded, rigorous process for infected farming facilities to re-open which obviously leads to a loss of sales for that particular facility.

 

For example, infected facilities must go through intense cleaning and disinfection, heating the buildings to high temperatures to ensure any virus is killed, then the facilities must sit empty for over 20 days. Several tests are then undertaken to ensure no virus remains.

 

Since the 2015 outbreak, the USDA has worked with stakeholders to introduce more robust measures to protect farms, such as drawing quarantine zones and informing farmers what they do inside their own fences, as well as plans to detect the virus earlier and cull chickens.

 

In the UK, which suffered a major avian flu outbreak in 2007 and one in 2014, stakeholders are upping their capabilities to stem the impact of an outbreak.

 

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Marie Burnett, policy manager at the British Poultry Council, which represents stakeholders in the poultry industry and whose members include processors like 2 Sisters and Cargill’s UK operations, said the importance of biosecurity is rising in the industry.

 

She said: “Biosecurity has always been at the forefront [of the industry]. Probably in the last couple of years since the outbreak of high pathogenic in Yorkshire, I think the awareness has been heightened among small producers about how important biosecurity is in keeping avian flu out."

 

"It starts at the farm gate,” she says, pointing out that "only essential visitors are allowed on farms now".

 

Protective measures include disinfecting the farms, vehicle checks, as well as retailers carrying out spot checks on farms.

 

Once in farms, workers on the poultry farms are given "dedicated farm clothing" and boots have to be dipped into disinfectant before entering the poultry shed.

 

Similar procedures are in place in slaughterhouses while rigorous hygiene checks are take place further along the chain in poultry processors.

 

In poultry processing factories, the level of biosecurity can vary from country-to-country, depending on which countries are most at risk.

 

For instance, Cargill has invested millions in upgrading its poultry facility in Thailand - a high risk country - including investing in the plant’s food safety system, installing more efficient equipment and expanding the facility’s cold storage capabilities.

 

National Farmers Union (NFU) in the UK is also on a major offensive to educate farmers about how best to prevent the spread of the disease.

 

Speaking to FoodIngredientsFirst, Gary Ford, the NFU's chief poultry adviser, said: "the big thing for us is prevention" and "how we work with industry during an outbreak".

 

He said: "What we are doing is raising awareness among poultry farmers about what is the disease, what do the symptoms look like, what do government pay for, what is the responsibility of the farmer."

 

While farmers are aware of avian flu, Ford said it is important to "impress” upon famers the impact the disease can have on their businesses, so the importance of the disease will hit home to them.

An outbreak of avian flu can have devastating impacts not just on the farming community but on the broader economy.

 

But it appears that the disease is still outwitting those who are trying to eradicate it and until improved measures are introduced to combat it, this will continue to be the case.