{"id":898560,"date":"2026-09-17T01:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/898560\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T01:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T01:04:14","slug":"new-study-makes-avian-flu-biosecurity-warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/898560\/","title":{"rendered":"New study makes avian flu biosecurity warnings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social, economic and environmental problems must also be addressed to improve industry resilience to the virus, researchers have claimed.<\/p>\n

\"author_img\"Share\"New<\/p>\n

Farm-based biosecurity measures will not be enough on their own to improve the British poultry industry\u2019s resilience to avian influenza (AI), new research has claimed.<\/p>\n

Academics have called for a \u201cjoined-up, multi-faceted approach\u201d to address concerns including planning regulation, financial risk and the challenges faced by different sectors of production.<\/p>\n

But the study, published in the Environmental Research: Food Systems<\/a> journal, warned \u201cmore challenging debates\u201d about the industry\u2019s current structure will also need to be addressed.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the RVC, plus the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, say the issue has become particularly important because of the scale of AI outbreaks in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u2018Distinct challenges\u2019<\/p>\n

But they also warned of \u201cdistinct challenges\u201d caused by the interactions between concentrated areas of poultry production and wild or semi-wild birds.<\/p>\n

It pointed out that APHA data from the 2022 and 2023 AI seasons showed 93% of cases were caused by contact between the two, with \u201conly a small number\u201d being linked to transmission between infected poultry sites.<\/p>\n

The paper added: \u201cWe argue that farm-level biosecurity, while necessary, is insufficient to secure Britain\u2019s poultry production under near-endemic avian influenza virus pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cA more bio-resilient poultry future will require macro-level, multi-sectoral coordination that integrates spatial planning, infrastructure renewal and equitable risk-sharing mechanisms for disease preparedness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Areas of concern<\/p>\n

Among the main areas of concern is weaknesses in planning regulations, which some critics fear may be increasing the risk of AI spreading.<\/p>\n

One vet quoted in the paper described moves by local planning officials to impose conditions for ponds to be sited close to new sheds as \u201ccrazy\u201d from the perspective of virus prevention.<\/p>\n

The study suggested that problem, together with other issues including planning \u201cbottlenecks\u201d, inconsistencies in livestock compensation and failures in virus insurance, could be addressed through the development of a new national poultry strategy or an alternative policy framework.<\/p>\n

Challenging debates<\/p>\n

But it continued: \u201cBeyond these considerations lie more challenging debates around whether the current level of intensive production and low-cost poultry has long-term viability, particularly regarding ecological sustainability. In recent times, there have been numerous calls for significant reductions in national meat consumption in Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlternative poultry futures could include those with lower levels of national meat consumption and where other models of production make significant contributions, rather than those which offshore production and increase reliance on cheap imported poultry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Co-author Ivo Syndicus, a postdoctoral researcher in social science transformations of biosecurity at the University of Oxford, said the study had highlighted the challenges created by the industry\u2019s \u201centanglements with social, economic and environmental issues\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cTo address the threat poultry in Britain faces from avian influenza, it is important that we look beyond farm-level biosecurity alone and taken a broader view of how the structure of our poultry industry may create specific vulnerabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social, economic and environmental problems must also be addressed to improve industry resilience to the virus, researchers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":["post-898560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}