What To Do About That Bird Flu – Part 3

by Alison Despathy

There are records of suspected avian bird flu cases in which further investigation revealed toxicity and poisoning, especially in wild bird populations which regularly come in contact with contaminated waters, agricultural chemicals, and pollution. 

For example, in 2005 in Germany, suspected cases of avian bird flu in geese were determined to be from rat poisoning ingested from nearby factory farms that were using toxic chemicals to keep rodents out of their grain supply, a common practice in factory farms around the world. 

Big Ag is well known for its use of chemicals, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, toxic medications, and genetically modified crops and medicine including bovine growth hormone. Unethical farming practices are rampant such as over breeding and its resulting distorted and enhanced structures, overcrowding including confined animal feeding operations, and often in the case of large chicken farms, the high level of dust and ammonia can lead to damage of mucous membranes and the respiratory system. Each of these exposures can result in sick or poisoned animals which manifest with similar clinical symptoms as avian bird flu.

Avian bird flu symptoms in animals can include apathy, dull ruffled feathers coats, high fevers, lack of desire for food or water, There can be breathing difficulties, sneezing, discharge from eyes and beak, slimy greenish stools, central nervous system disruptions, edema and internal bleeding. 

These symptoms can also be attributed to poisoning and toxic exposure yet these are not typically explored if there is an initial positive test with a compromised, nonspecific PCR test or antibody test, even when the cycle thresholds are so high that the false positive rate is near 100%. 

Poison, nutritional deficiencies, bacterial infections, allergies, autoimmune conditions and toxic exposures cause damage to cells and the resulting release of genetic material can be picked up by all of these tests. 

If symptoms are caused by deficiencies and poisoning yet are hidden behind a misdiagnosis of avian bird flu, the result is that these detrimental farming practices or contamination events are not appropriately addressed or resolved. Instead death or unnecessary and potentially toxic experimental vaccines and medication are deployed to humans or animals instead of improvements made in their living conditions, treatment and nutrition. 

It is well known that large feedlots, and Big Ag production struggle with virulent strains of bacteria, due to mismanagement and poor practices including the use of feed stuffs such as bakery wastes, pasta, candy, breads, even gum in wrappers, and both the misuse and overuse of antibiotics due to rampant sickness. Cows are intended to eat grass. High levels of grain or inappropriate foodstuffs alter the microbiome within the cows stomachs resulting in sickness, higher risk of pathogenic bacterial issues, compromised nutrition and unnatural growth. 

Many cows raised in feedlots are fed genetically modified crops (GMO) which are designed to either produce foreign toxic proteins to kill bugs that try to consume them, such as GMO corn or crops like GMO soy which are genetically altered to withstand the spraying of glyphosate without dying. Plants take this pesticide into their cells as they grow. The cows then eat these GMO crops which may result in toxicity and damage due to reactions to these foreign proteins and high glyphosate exposure. There are both known and unknown health risks with genetically modified crops. 

StarLink was a gene-modified corn not approved for human consumption that found its way onto the shelves of grocery stores and caused massive allergic reactions including anaphylactic shock. It took a consumer advocacy group–not the regulating agencies or food manufacturers- to connect the dots and expose the contamination which triggered a recall on these corn products. What are products like these doing to farm animals? 

An avian bird flu ‘diagnosis’ with these ill equipped testing methods directly prevents the identification and correction of compromised agricultural practices that harm animals, the environment and the humans who consume this food. Moving past this practice will not only lead to an increase in proper care of animals, it will allow the potential culprits of deficiency, toxicity, and compromised practices to be eliminated as herd health and improvements in management are promoted. Ignoring these factors and perpetuating this cycle is the path with tunnel visions avian bird flu testing.

The only winners in this misuse of the PCR test situation are the pharmaceutical industry ready to swoop in with, often toxic, ineffective, and unnecessary ‘magic bullets’ and Big Ag hungry to gobble up the small local farmers and build food empires as they work to further control the food supply and government subsidies. 

The winner of the 2005 ‘almost but not quite avian bird flu pandemic’ was the Swiss Pharmaceutical company Roche, who had purchased Tamiflu from the American biotech company Gilead which chose to retain patents. As a medication, Tamiflu lacked safety and efficacy and was never researched to assess effectiveness against bird flu. Despite this fact, as well as Tamiflu’s increasing reports of safety concerns, and false statements made by the media, political leaders including US President George W Bush, and the World Health Organization, a worldwide race for Tamiflu ensued. This included countries stockpiling this ineffective, unproven and side effect laden medication. 

The US purchased 20 million bottles of Tamiflu, each costing $100 for a total of 2 billion dollars spent on this untested, media mania bird flu ‘treatment.’

This entire fiasco resulted in concerns about the political connections of Gilead after they made $12 million from this Tamiflu ordeal with President Bush’s cabinet member, Donald Rumsfeld profiting heavily on this unscientific, taxpayer funded stockpile. It also brought to light Big Pharma’s tentacles in politics, media and healthcare lending weight to Harvard professor and former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), Arnold Relman’s statement that, “The medical profession is being bought by the pharmaceutical industry, not only in terms of practice but also in terms of teaching and research.” NEJM has also openly admitted that they were no longer able to find enough experts without any financial connections to the pharmaceutical industry. 

There is nothing more fundamental to the health and survival of a society than our food supply and stewardship of natural resources. Unnecessarily culling animals and inflicting them with experimental, potentially toxic medications and vaccines without having a real understanding of sickness could devastate our agricultural economy, our local farms and the health of all Vermonters. 

Looking closely at the history of avian bird flu hype, the issues and limitation of indirect testing methods such as PCR, ELISA and Western Blot, In Silico gene sequencing as well as the role Big Pharma plays in fear mongering as they continually seek to build markets and increase their profits will help Vermont as this avian bird flu issue gains momentum in the media. Assessing if this is media hype, bad science in play, or distraction for the poisoning and questionable Big Ag practices will help Vermont navigate this imminent threat.

More information and helpful forms for farmers can be accessed at the westonaprice.org website here

For the results, details and concerns related to the bird flu vaccines currently in development, click here

When VDC learns more from the Vermont State Veterinarian about avian bird flu testing, this will be updated. 

The author is a clinical nutritionist in St. Johnsbury.