Get the Facts on Avian Influenza Concerns
Council for Agricultural Science and Technology releases new papers explaining trade issues and human pandemic concerns related to avian influenza.
Compiled by staff
Published: May 5, 2006
As attention around the world focuses on the potential for an avian influenza pandemic, there is concern that sensationalism may overrule facts, ironically creating the very chaos it predicts.
Ames, Iowa-based Council for Agricultural Science and Technology recently published two papers addressing the avian influenza frenzy.
Although much of the concern about a pandemic outbreak of high-pathogenic avian influenza centers on human health, the potential impacts on the international poultry and feed grains trade are significant. CAST's paper, Avian Influenza: Trade Issues, brings these trade concerns into sharper focus.
The global market impacts resulting from outbreaks of HPAI include
- poultry-meat supply buildups,
- poultry consumption declines,
- potentially sharp drops in global poultry trade,
- declining international poultry prices and industry profitability,
- disruptions in normal trade flows, and
- serious potential impacts on small-scale poultry operations and backyard chicken producers, including loss of income and employment opportunities and risks to food security.
In addition, Avian Influenza: Human Pandemic Concerns, addresses the current situation, evaluates the structure and function of avian influenza viruses, outlines pandemic risk assessment, and provides references and selected Web sites for more detailed information.
Both commentaries are available at CAST's Web site, www.cast-science.org.
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