BIRD FLU

BY DR JUSTINE BUTLER, HEAD OF RESEARCH, VIVA!

Viva! have launched a new campaign highlighting the deadly risk avian influenza (bird flu) poses to human health and how this risk can be mitigated.

The global spread of bird flu is considered a significant pandemic threat by experts and although it mainly affects birds, several strains have infected people, including H5N1 and H5N8. Globally, there have been over 15,000 H5N1 outbreaks in domestic bird flocks, killing tens of millions of them, while hundreds of millions of others have been killed to try and prevent the disease from spreading. Last winter in the UK, H5N1 was reported from 116 premises, over four times the number reporting H5N8 in the previous winter.

Strict biosecurity measures, lockdowns and avian influenza prevention zones have failed despite all captive birds, including free-range, having been ordered indoors. Bird flu continues to spread.

The poultry industry likes to blame the spread of bird flu on migratory birds when the real problem is factory farming. Wild birds may contribute at a local level but poultry farming is a major factor in bird flu ’s global spread. Clusters of outbreaks in high density poultry farming indicate a likely failure of biosecurity measures and show how easily bird flu spreads. Factory farms, housing tens of thousands of birds, provide the ideal breeding ground for viruses to mutate and spread.

Juliet Gellatley, founder and international director of Viva! says: “Viva! have been into these hellholes and exposed the horrific conditions birds are forced to endure. Over one billion chickens are slaughtered for their meat in the UK every year and around 95 per cent are factory farmed. With 24 billion chickens in the world, we are giving bird flu every chance to mutate and become infectious to humans. ”

In January 2022, the UK Health Security Agency confirmed the first human case of H5N1 in the UK (and Europe). It likely came from close contact with H5N1 infected ducks kept in and around the person’s home. There have been 863 human cases of H5N1 in people, 456 of which have died – mostly teenagers and young adults – a death rate higher than 50 per cent! Most of them had handled dead or diseased birds.

So far, H5N1 does not spread easily between humans but as we’ ve seen with Covid, viruses mutate and can become more easily transmissible. Flu viruses are especially prone to this and mutations occur frequently. Scientists warn that H5N1 may be just three mutations away from becoming transmissible, person to person. Writing in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, scientists said: “If this virus acquires human-to-

human transmissibility with its present fatality rate of 50 per cent, the resulting pandemic would be akin to a global tsunami. If it killed those infected at even a fraction of this rate, the results would be catastrophic. ”

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There really was an avalanche of news generated by Viva! in the last quarter – and only one page to report it all! Go to the Ukraine article on page 8 to see the publicity this issue raised; and to page 33 to view the coverage of our TV ad.

The Daily Express ran a huge piece from our Dr Justine Butler on the potential dangers of bird flu. She also had a large piece in Vegan Magazine on our new factory farming report, which also covers bird flu. Justine was also at work in rectifying a series of absurd claims from a retired farmer about the dangers of veganism in the Shropshire Star, also run in the Express & Star.

Vegan Food & Living ran a positive piece on the work that goes on behind the scenes at Viva! while Vegan Life magazine ran an excellent in-depth interview with Juliet Gellatley.

The new GB News TV might have a dubious political agenda but we maintain our integrity wherever we appear on it. Juliet did a long, almost uninterrupted piece on Viva! Poland and our sanctuary, while our new managing director, Laura Hellwig, was shouted at and constantly interrupted as she gave a wonderfully calm and articulate explanation as to why veganism is so important for the world. The farmer who appeared alongside her received almost no attention at all as the aim was clearly to demolish Laura – unsuccessfully as it happens! It feels a bit like stepping back to the 70s – which just about sums up GB News.

Despite being always calm and pleasant, Laura seems to get the aggressive male presenters. James Whale on Talk Radio interviewed her (shouted at her) about climate change and with him being a fullon climate change denier, you can image how it went. At one point he threated to kick her off the show. Her calm determination clearly rattled him. In one sense it was almost funny but looking at it as a journalist, it is truly shameful.

BY TONY WARDLE, EDITOR

Juliet did a 10-minute slot on Radio Islam all about Viva!, veganism and raw food versus cooked food. She also did 15 minutes live on RISE for BNT, Sky TV, with the hugely popular blogger and influencer, Sonia Poulton. The subject was Viva! and all things vegan.

The story of Viva!’ s tie up with Tranmere Rovers for Veganuary (featured in the last issue of Viva!life) has attracted additional coverage in The Sun, Business Green News, My Green Pod, Vegan Food UK and Einpresswire; a media distributor to more than 40,000 journalists in 170 countries in 40 different languages.

Through extraordinary hard work, Viva!’ s VRC has surged in popularity and now has over 100,000 followers on Facebook. Now, that is a success!