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Home > Special topics > Flamingos and H5N1
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Flamingos and highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1
What is highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1? | ^ top |
Cases of infection in captive flamingos | ^ top |
Cases of infection in wild flamingos | ^ top |
None reported, as of 13 September 2008.
HPAI H5N1 in the Camargue | ^ top |
Avian influenza and zoos | ^ top |
Conservation considerations | ^ top |
Prior to HPAI H5N1, reports of HPAI in wild birds were very rare. The broad geographical scale and extent of the disease in wild birds is both extraordinary and unprecedented, and the conservation impacts of HPAI H5N1 have been significant.
It is estimated that between 5-10% of the world population of Bar-headed Goose Anser indicus died at Lake Qinghai, China in spring 2005 (Chen et al. 2005; Liu et al. 2005). At least two globally threatened species have been affected: Black-necked Crane Grus nigricollis in China and Red-breasted Goose Branta ruficollis in Greece. Approximately 90% of the world population of Red-breasted Goose is confined to just five roost sites in Romania and Bulgaria, countries that have both reported outbreaks, as also have Russia and Ukraine where they also over-winter (BirdLife International 2007).
However, the total number of wild birds known to have been affected has been small in contrast to the number of domestic birds affected, and many more wild birds die of commoner avian diseases each year. Perhaps a greater threat than direct mortality has been the development of public fear about waterbirds resulting in misguided attempts to control the disease by disturbing or destroying wild birds and their habitats. Such responses are often encouraged by exaggerated or misleading messages in the media.
Currently, wildlife health problems are being created or exacerbated by unsustainable activities such as habitat loss or degradation, which facilitates closer contact between domestic and wild animals. Many advocate that to reduce risk of avian influenza and other bird diseases, there is a need to move to markedly more sustainable systems of agriculture with significantly lower intensity systems of poultry production. These need to be more biosecure, separated from wild waterbirds and their natural wetland habitats resulting in far fewer opportunities for viral cross-infection and thus pathogenetic amplification (Greger 2006). There are major animal and human health consequences (in terms of the impact on economies, food security and potential implications of a human influenza pandemic) of not strategically addressing these issues. However, to deliver such an objective in a world with an ever-growing human population and with issues of food-security in many developing countries, will be a major policy challenge.
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