Photo Credit – FAO
# 7227
AGPs, or aerosol generating procedures, are medical procedures - like suctioning, intubation, and bronchoscopy – that stimulate coughing, or otherwise promote the spread of aerosols.
The concern over AGPs in a healthcare setting is that they can create airborne infectious particles (bacterial or viral) that may be able to infect others in close proximity.
Hence the requirements (see CDC Interim H7N9 Infection Control Guidelines) for wearing full PPEs (N95 respiratory, gown, gloves, face shield) when performing these types of procedures on suspected or confirmed H7N9 cases.
Today, ProMed Mail (see Avian influenza (50): China, zoonotic LPAI H7N9, animal) mirrors a report from InventorSpot on a mechanical device used in China by some live poultry sellers to de-feather chickens.
One that may be serving as a de facto AGP in crowded markets.
The pedigree of this story is a bit hard to pin down, as versions of it have also appeared in Hong Kong’s Apple Daily and USA Today over the past couple of weeks.
Follow the link for pictures, and details.
Chinese Poultry Feather Removal Machines May Be Spreading H7N9 Bird Flu
by China.new
(Excerpt)
Poultry feather removal machines are commonly used to pluck freshly slaughtered chickens, ducks and geese at China's urban live poultry markets.
To prepare birds for customers, market sellers spin them in machines into which hot water is added. The tubs then spin at high speeds, quickly and efficiently plucking the feathers. Trouble is, droplets of steam and spray emanating from the machines could carry H7N9 bird flu viruses directly into the lungs of sellers, customers, and anyone else in the area.
For those imbued with unbound curiosity and a strong stomach for such things - we have a short video of this E-ticket ride for chickens via Youtube - courtesy of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily.
The editors of ProMed Mail sum up this story by stating:
[If the described (plausible) theory is valid, infection rates among the personnel working with feather removal machines in the affected territories in eastern China should be significantly higher than among other population groups. Is this, indeed, the case? It will also be interesting to note whether the birds treated in the described machines have been tested and found ante-mortem to be infected. - Mod.AS]
