Avian flu is forcing farmers to again cull poultry birds

Brad Moline, a fourth-generation turkey farmer from Western Iowa’s Manson, saw this happen before. In 2015, a virulent avian flu outbreak nearly wiped out his flock.

Barns once filled with chattering birds were suddenly silent. Employees were anguished by having to kill animals exposed to the flu. The family business, started in 1924, was at serious risk.

His business recovered, but now the virus is back, again imperiling the nation's poultry farms. There have been 19 confirmations of the bird flu since March in Iowa according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. But this time, there's another pernicious force at work: a potent wave of misinformation that claims the bird flu isn't real.

"You just want to beat your head against the wall," Moline said of the Facebook groups in which people insist the flu is fake or, maybe, even a bioweapon. "I understand the frustration with how COVID was handled. I understand the lack of trust in the media today. I get it. But this is real."

While it poses little risk to humans, the global outbreak has led farmers to cull millions of birds that were exposed to the flu and threatens to add to already rising food prices.

It's also spawning fantastical claims similar to the ones that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring how conspiracy theories often emerge at times of uncertainty, and how the internet and a deepening distrust of science fuel their spread.

The claims can be found on obscure online message boards and major platforms like Twitter. Some versions claim the flu is fake, a hoax being used to justify reducing the supply of birds in an effort to drive up food prices, either to wreck the global economy or force people into vegetarianism.

"There is no `bird flu' outbreak," wrote one man on Reddit. "It's just Covid for chickens."

Other posters insist the flu is real, but that it was genetically engineered as a weapon, possibly intended to touch off a new round of COVID-19-style lockdowns. A version of the story popular in India posits that 5G cell towers are somehow to blame.

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As evidence, many of those claiming that the flu is fake note that animal health authorities monitoring the outbreak are using some of the same technology used to test for COVID-19.

"They're testing the animals for bird flu with PCR tests. That should give you a clue as to what's going on," wrote one Twitter user, in a post that's been liked and retweeted thousands of times.

In truth, PCR tests have been used routinely in medicine, biology and even law enforcement for decades; their creator won a Nobel Prize in 1993.

Farmers in states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota have already culled millions of fowl to prevent the outbreak from spreading. Zoos around the United States have moved exotic bird exhibits indoors to protect their animals, and wildlife authorities are discouraging backyard bird feeding in some states to prevent the spread by wild birds. The disease has also claimed bald eagles.

The first known human case of the H5N1 outbreak in the United States was confirmed last month in Colorado in a prison inmate who had been assisting with disposing of poultry at a local farm.

Most human cases involve direct contact with infected birds, meaning the risk to a broad population is low, but experts around the country are monitoring the virus closely just to be sure, according to Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, an agency that tracks animal disease in part to protect the state's agricultural industries.

"I can guarantee you, this is the real deal," Poulsen told the Associated Press. "We certainly aren't making this up."

While the details may vary, the conspiracy theories about avian flu all speak to a distrust of authority and institutions, and a suspicion that millions of doctors, scientists, veterinarians, journalists and elected officials around the world can no longer be trusted.

"Americans clearly understand that the federal government and major media have lied to them repeatedly, and are completely corrupted by the pharmaceutical companies," said Dr. Joseph Mercola, an osteopath whose discredited claims about vaccines, masks and the coronavirus made him a prominent source of COVID-19 misinformation.

Polls show trust in many American institutions including the news media has fallen in recent years. Trust in science and scientific experts is also down, and along partisan lines.

Moline, the Iowa turkey farmer, said he sympathizes with people who question what they read about viruses. But he said anyone who doubts the existence of bird flu doesn't understand the threat.

The 2015 outbreak was later determined to be the most expensive animal health disaster in U.S. history. Moline's farm had to cull tens of thousands of turkeys after the flu got into one of his barns. Workers at the farm now abide by a hygiene policy meant to limit the spread of viruses, including using different pairs of boots and clothes for different barns.

Conspiracy theories flourish during times of social unrest or unease, according to John Jackson, dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Before the internet, there were likely just as many people who privately doubted explanations for big events, Jackson said. But they enjoyed limited opportunities to connect with like-minded individuals, few chances to win new converts, and no way to broadcast their views to strangers.

Now, the conspiracy theories that gain wide popularity give believers a sense of control in a rapidly changing, interconnected world, Jackson said. While they can emerge after disasters, assassinations or plane crashes, they can also appear during times of social upheaval or rapid change.

Claims that the avian flu is a hoax used to drive up food prices also highlight real-world concerns about inflation and food shortages. Worries that the flu is somehow linked to 5G towers underscore anxieties about technological change. Suggestions that it will be used to mandate vegetarianism reflect uncertainties about sustainable agriculture, climate change and animal welfare.

"Conspiracy theories rest on the idea that humans have the capacity for keeping secrets," Jackson said. "But they underestimate the reality that we aren't very good at keeping them."

Gazette staff and wires Agriculture May. 13, 2022 6:00 am

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