Meat shortages caused by African swine fever (ASF) sweeping through the Far East are encouraging a shift to poultry production in backyard farms, raising the spectre of a deadly avian influenza pandemic, scientists warn.
Meat shortages caused by African swine fever (ASF) sweeping through the Far East are encouraging a shift to poultry production in backyard farms, raising the spectre of a deadly avian influenza pandemic, scientists warn.
“This is very scary because we know that there will be another pandemic,” Kristina Osbjer, a veterinary epidemiologist, until recently with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Cambodia, tells SciDev.Net.
“Now, there is an increased risk of avian influenza being the origin.”
In recent times two strains of bird flu — H5N1 and H7N9 — have struck humans with deadly results. Scientists fear that such viruses can mutate into strains capable of human-to-human transmission.
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