(NewsWorthy.news) – Australia has announced plans to cull over a million birds to address bird flu concerns, according to reports. Conservative commentators suggested that the measures proposed by Victorian authorities amounted to a direct assault on the country’s food supply and that the virus is being used as an excuse to justify an engineered food crisis in the near future.
The “Rise Melbourne” X account claimed that authorities were now “coming for the food.” The news marks a dark milestone for the country’s largest outbreak of the virus as authorities confirm that over a million birds will be slaughtered in an attempt to curb the spread of bird flu.
The highly contagious strains of avian influenza have been found at seven farms in south-western Victoria. The outbreak was discovered on an egg farm in the Meredith area in May. Authorities initially announced in May that 500,000 birds would be killed before the virus was discovered on more farms.
The virus strain affecting Victoria’s farms is the H5N1 strain, which differs from the H7N8 strain that has hit farms in New South Wales. The H7N8 strain has now been found at two farms in the Hawkesbury region, NSW, where 87,000 birds are to be culled. According to the CSIRO Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, the strain found in Hawkesbury spread from a wild bird.
In an update published on June 14, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised people to avoid exposing themselves to sick or dead animals and birds, be they wild or domesticated, as much as possible. The update also said people should not drink raw milk and added that pasteurization of raw milk kills the H5N1 virus.
The mortality rate of bird flu among humans is a debated topic; some researchers have argued that inflated numbers lie at the root of questionable policies. Microbiology Professor Vincent Racaniello, of the Columbia University Medical Center, and Peter Palese, a virologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, are among several scientists challenging the figures.
Racaniello said the estimated lethality of H5N1 was vastly exaggerated. He referenced a study in Thailand, which indicated that only 9% of a village’s population possessing the antibodies would considerably affect the perception of the mortality of the virus. Palese also argued in 2012 that the estimated fatality rate of the H5N1 virus among humans was too high by “orders of magnitude.”
Copyright 2024, NewsWorthy.news
