Monday, November 06, 2006
US Government approves firefighting foam in bird flu fight
The United States government has approved the use of firefighting foam to quickly kill chickens in the event of an outbreak of deadly bird flu H5N1 in commercial poultry. The Idea originally was researched by animal health officials in North Carolina and Delaware.
According to officials at the US Agriculture Department, water-based foam can be an alternative to carbon dioxide, which has traditionally been used to quickly kill large quantities of birds.
The departments Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said that up until now, the birds were gassed which takes more people to run the equipment, exposes them to potentially infected birds, and it can be difficult to maintain a high enough concentration of gas to kill the bird.
Foam can be used to suffocate floor-reared flocks - chickens and turkeys raised primarily for meat - to contain deadly bird flu, APHIS spokeswoman Karen Eggert said. Foam can also be used in outbreaks of rapidly spreading disease, such as Exotic Newcastle, when state or federal officials deem it necessary.
And it can be used when birds are in structurally unsound buildings, such as a building damaged by a hurricane or other natural disaster, she said.
“Whenever you have a new solution to an old problem, it’s probably because the old solution had a number of shortcomings or was not ideal,” said Marty Zaluski, North Carolina Agriculture Department veterinarian.
“Using gas was not safe for people, it was more intensive as far as personnel and it was not as humane for the animals,” Zaluski said.