Avian flu sounds like bad news. The more chickens and wild birds it kills, the more cattle and humans infected, the more worried we get. But the good news is there’s something we can do.
Given the mounting evidence that this viral flu is being fuelled by large-scale poultry farming, we can help industry and society move toward food production models that won’t invite disease.
That doesn’t mean you’ll need to stop eating eggs or supporting local poultry producers. But the science suggests we’ll assist agriculture in the long term if we support a scale-down of poultry farming to sustainable levels. We need to produce less and better, and get serious about eating plant-based proteins.
B.C. is an excellent place to start because it’s a hot spot for highly pathogenic avian influenza. Though B.C. turns out less than 15 per cent of Canada’s chicken and eggs, the province accounts for more than 50 per cent of the nation’s recent avian flu-related bird kills and 81 per cent of the country’s now-infected barns.
In just the past two months, more than two million commercially farmed birds in B.C. have died or been slaughtered due to avian flu, for a total of 8.5 million birds over the past four years.
Scientific analyses have shown that avian flu spreads especially among crowded poultry.
That helps explain the sorry status of B.C., where birds are packed into barns and buildings are situated uncommonly close together on the narrow plains of the mountainous Fraser Valley.
Wild birds are ‘both victims and vectors’
You might be thinking wild birds are the problem, and that’s what industry contends. It’s true that ducks and geese shed pathogens as they fly overhead or stay for the mild winter. But historically, wild-bird pathogens were innocuous.
Commercial poultry settings are where low-pathogenic strains tend to become high-pathogenic.
One peer-reviewed global study investigated every incident over half a century in which bird flu viruses went lethal, and it showed that the mutations happened almost exclusively in commercial poultry — and mostly in high-income countries.
The influential civil society organization Compassion in World Farming says there’s such strong evidence that the poultry industry fuels avian flu that “only major farm reforms can end it.”
A 2023 report of the global Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wild Birds cried “fowl” over the millions of winged creatures dead from this flu, and said, “Wild birds are both victims and vectors of a virus originating from within a poultry setting.”
There are no quick or easy solutions, but we don't need to be sitting ducks.
How to reform the system for a healthier future
First, we can support efforts to ensure farmed birds are raised better, not only for animal welfare but for public health and environments.
Today, most poultry are indoors in dense barns that are more factory than farm. Bred to yield maximum amounts of meat and eggs, the birds are genetically similar so have less natural resilience. They’re unable to move freely or care for their young, increasing stress and vulnerability to disease.
That's life for 75 per cent of poultry around the world, more than 99 per cent in the United States, and a hard-to-obtain but high percentage in Canada. They offer a lot of meat and eggs, which sounds desirable if we avoid the moral question of how we treat animals, and if we’re prepared for the consequences to ecosystems and public health.
To shift the system, we’ll need smaller flocks, lower stocking densities, a wider variety of robust breeds with higher natural immunity and a lower concentration of farms.
Second, we can push governments to support more sustainable agriculture. At this moment, while bird flu is raging, Canada is in a 10-year program to give chicken and turkey producers $44 million to sell more at home and abroad. Is that wise?
We could also question federal compensation to poultry corporations to cull birds. When flu-struck animals are killed to halt the virus, much as we empathize with farmers, they get compensated at market value plus costs — even for barns that have had multiple rounds of infections and culls. Perhaps tweaks to the factory-farm model aren't really good enough.
Third, we can shift to more plant-based eating, getting most of our protein from lentils, beans and the many additional plant sources that use minimal land and water, create lower emissions, and don’t catch flu.
That will also save us money, because these old-school foods are easier on our wallets. Less meat and more plants will also boost biodiversity by minimizing deforestation for feed crops, pollute less water and air and emit fewer greenhouse gases, because farming animals — even poultry — creates more GHGs than farming plants.
Let this moment motivate us
These actions complement the goals of the food movement, of which you're probably a part by shopping at farmers markets and eating less-processed meals. It also fits with the global effort to make food systems more diverse and resilient.
Rethinking animal agriculture isn't radical. Most health authorities recommend eating more plant-based foods. Even lowering livestock numbers is on the table, now that we have many more farmed animals on the planet than people.
The Netherlands, with the highest livestock density in Europe, plans to cut numbers by a third, hoping to emerge from mountains of manure and satisfy emissions goals.
Britain, Ireland and New Zealand have also explored capping livestock numbers and densities.
In Canada, a 2024 report from World Animal Protection showed that limiting livestock numbers would help reach emissions goals.
The problem is complex, but that can motivate us. There’s nothing inevitable about crowding animals into factories to produce more meat and eggs than is good for environments or public health.
And doing something about it is better than waiting for a pandemic.
Read more: Health, Food, Labour + Industry
Tyee Commenting Guidelines
Comments that violate guidelines risk being deleted, and violations may result in a temporary or permanent user ban. Maintain the spirit of good conversation to stay in the discussion and be patient with moderators. Comments are reviewed regularly but not in real time.
Do:
Do not: