# 1614
While most of us worry that the H5N1 virus will adapt to human receptor cells and thus cause a novel, and deadly, influenza pandemic - that isn't the only bird flu crisis we have to worry about.
Bird flu is already a pandemic in birds, having been responsible (directly or indirectly) for the loss of hundreds of millions of wild and domestic birds worldwide. Once a problem mainly in a handful of South East Asian nations, the H5N1 virus has over the past two years, expanded its range to over 60 nations.
As it spreads, it carries misery, fear, and economic hardship with it.
And for many people in the world, it carries hunger as well.
Consider the devastation to the poultry industry in nations like Bangladesh, India, and now Pakistan. When entire states begin banning the sale, trade, or consumption of poultry . . . you know times are about to get tough. Added to this will be the fear of poultry products that will linger in consumer's minds for some time.
There will probably be government bailouts of large private growers, and many of the larger poultry operations in these countries are state run. But the economic impact will be felt. The money has to come from somewhere, and that burden is always passed on to either the consumer or the taxpayer.
And what of individual families, those who kept a handful of birds in their back yards?
Millions of families in developing countries keep birds.
Some of them live on as little as a dollar a day. They depend on their meager bird holdings to provide eggs, and occasionally meat, to the family's diet. Selling a bird every once in awhile might bring in some badly needed income.
If they were lucky, those hit by the culls were compensated for their birds, although some reportedly received a chit, an I.O.U., promising payment. Meanwhile their birds are gone; slaughtered, burned, and buried by bio-suited government cullers while they stood by and watched horrified and unprotected.
Birds in India, and much of Asia, are often household pets as well as sources of food and income, which makes this both an emotional and economic shock to them. Worse, they are told that they may not raise birds again for at least 90 days.
And there is no guarantee that this crisis will end in 90 days. Bird flu, once entrenched in a region, has a nasty habit of reoccurring. Ask Vietnam.
All the while, food prices are escalating.
Take away cheap poultry, and protein options become scarce for many of the world's people. As global food reserves are falling to their lowest level in 25 years, and inflation of food prices in countries like India are running at more than 10% a year, the destruction of millions of chickens can only exacerbate this crisis.
This from last November, on the looming global food crisis. Note, this was written before the current outbreaks of bird flu in Pakistan and India.
India, Pakistan suffer high food price inflation
London, UNI:
The price rise is a fallout of record oil prices, US farmers switching out of cereals to grow biofuel crops, extreme weather and growing demand from countries like India and China, the FAO said.
India, Pakistan, China, Russia and Latin America were the worst affected countries due to rising food price inflation triggered by a global food crisis, a top UN agency said.
According to UN Food and Agricultural Organisation soaring prices of food items worldwide is leading to political instability all across the globe.
''Food riots in India, Yemen and Mexico, warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa, empty shelves in Caracas have been witnessed in the recent past which was not seen in decades of low global food commodity prices,'' a report by the UN FAO said.
A rise of more than 10 per cent is recorded in India and Russia while food price has inflated by 18 per cent in China, 13 per cent in Pakistan and Indonesia, according to the UN agency.
Meanwhile, there is shortage of beef, chicken and milk in the countries as governments try to keep a lid on food price inflation, it added.
Reports say that there are 854 million hungry people in the world and 4 million more join their ranks every year.
Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50 per cent higher than a year ago and rice is 20 per cent more expensive, the UN said.
FAO claimed that global food reserves were at their lowest in 25 years and prices would remain high for years.
Those of us who live in unaffected countries may simply shrug our shoulders, say `That's too bad', and go on with our lives. After all, it's just a bunch of birds, isn't it?
But this is a global problem that someday may affect us all.
Culling of infected birds, while necessary, is also very destructive.
For many, living in India, Bangladesh, or Pakistan is a hardscrabble life. India is rapidly becoming the suicide capital of the world, and among farmers, suicide is becoming an epidemic. Extreme economic stress, and the availability of agricultural poisons are generally cited as the reasons behind this.
Now thousands more farmers are being economically wiped out overnight. Already we've seen scattered reports of suicides over this crisis.
Ignoring the humanitarian aspects of millions of hungry and desperate people (which admittedly, we are pretty good at), not only could bird flu someday devastate the poultry industries in the western world, we will probably see higher food prices here as a result of the rising inflation in Asia and India.
So if this crisis doesn't pull at your heartstrings, it will at least tug at your wallet.
And of course, a global food crisis could spark regional conflicts, increase international tensions, and create flashpoints in already volatile areas of the world. Wars have been fought over less.
Despite the efforts of agencies like the FAO and the OIE, bird flu is spreading globally. Containment in some countries has been fairly successful, but in other's the virus literally is running wild.
The world needs to recognize that the bird flu virus is a clear and present danger, and begin seriously addressing its spread. And that means that nations must not only pony up the funds to combat it, they need to stop their incessant squabbling and begin working together.
If we don't, the economic, political, and health ramifications could be huge.
Dismissing it, because 'It's only in birds' is shortsighted and dangerous. While we worry about the pandemic that may be coming, we need to be concerned about the pandemic in birds that is already underway.
Right now, for millions of people, bird flu is already devastating.
And these sorts of things have a way of spreading while we're not looking, and eventually affecting everybody.
