The bird flu virus, the environment perspective |24 April 2006

“Blaming bird migrations is misleading and would not promote lasting solutions. The international community should focus instead on ecological, social and economic causes of the spreading such as the drastic reduction of wildlife habitats and unsustainable farming practices, which have led to an unhealthy proximity of migratory birds and domesticated animals,” recently remarked the Executive Secretary of the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species.

What does this statement imply for Seychelles? Are we safe? Are we prepared? There is a certain feeling of panic amongst the Seychelles population on the subject. Rightly so, since the international media had been portraying the bird flu virus as one of the worst killers in the world. It is however important that the facts about the virus are properly known to allow people to draw their own conclusion of the problem.

This article attempts to provide information that is pertinent to Seychelles, but for all those who seek to know more about the disease it is important that you visit reliable web sites for further information. We are proposing here two web sites World Health Organisation (www.who.int) or the Food and Agriculture Organisation (www.fao.org).

Is Seychelles completely safe from the bird flu virus? The answer is no, however the risk of the virus reaching Seychelles through migratory bird pathway is extremely low.  Why? There are three main reasons.
Firstly Seychelles is not in the main migratory pathways of birds.

The number of migratory birds coming into Seychelles can be considered as low. The second reason is that the species that usually carries the virus, that is birds such as ducks, geese and swans, do not usually come to Seychelles. The third reason is due to our social behaviour.

Seychellois rarely mixes with wild migratory birds or have poultry that do so. Our level of hygiene is a big plus for us.

So where is the risk? Seychelles does get vagrants, these are birds that sometimes lose their way and land here by mistake, but they are very rare. There is also a small risk that the virus may change its host meaning it will enter a species that does migrate to Seychelles, but all scientific information currently available is not showing this to happen.

The fact remains that bird flu has never been shown to be transferred from a wild bird to a human being. All transfers have been via poultry to human. The movement of migratory birds also cannot account for the spread of the disease in most cases of outbreaks. The movement of poultry and poultry products have been found to be the most common cause of the spread of the virus across the world. In this regards the Department of Agriculture have measures in place to prevent the entry of the bird flu virus via this pathway.

We however cannot be complacent. Certain additional measures are already in place since last year to monitor the virus and also to prevent its spread if it were to unfortunately reach Seychelles.

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources have already informed all outer islands about the disease and the need for them to report bird deaths, as well as the precautionary measures needed. The response so far has been good. For the inner islands the ministry is responding to all calls from the public. The ministry would like to thank members of the public for their support in this regards. The ministry is also urging members of the public to provide the right information. There have been cases of false information being transmitted to the ministry and the general public as a whole, and this has caused panic in certain circumstances.

Members of the public should look out for unusual bird deaths but it is particularly important that you report deaths of strange birds. The reason is very simple. Birds die every day, some get old, some from diseases and a lot from poisoning usually from agricultural practices. It is therefore normal that birds like pigeons, sren, martin and others are seen dead. You should not panic but allow staff from the ministry to investigate the cause of death. It is not recommended that people actually touch dead birds particularly birds they have never seen before unless the cause of death is known. If you have seen your cat killing a bird it is not necessary to call the ministry.

The Department of Agriculture has measures in place to deal with the eventuality of the bird flu hitting the poultry industry. All poultry farms have been visited and several teams have been put in place to deal with any incidents that may happen.

There is a national committee chaired by the Ministry of Health that has since last year been meeting to discuss the issue of bird flu.

The committee is made up of most stakeholders and a response plan has already been drafted. It can be said that even if the risk is low the country has been preparing for this eventuality. We have an added advantage of migratory birds leaving us rather than coming to us since spring is starting in Europe, but we need to continue to monitor the global situation with regards to bird movement.

This article will not be complete without mentioning our annual Seychelles tradition of eating bird eggs. The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources as well as the National Committee on Bird Flu has not found it necessary to place a ban on egg harvesting this year.

Sooty Terns are not regarded as real migratory species, after they leave the Seychelles they spend their entire time at sea fishing, they sleep on the wing. The bird basically does not mix with migratory birds. Furthermore Sooty Terns are not regarded as a vector of the disease; all scientific information currently available tells us that it is perfectly safe for us to continue with our tradition.