- 這個話題是空的。
- 文章
Another email from Nial Moores, responding to interview with Laurie Garrett (“the only reporter to win all three of [US] journalism’s big “P” awards (the Peabody, the Polk and the Pulitzer)”) on E magazine site.
Interview mainly re US preparedness (or lack of) for flu pandemic, but has a very wrong paragraph re migratory birds and flu origin/spread:
Laurie Garrett: Are We Prepared for Avian Flu?引用：Dear Editors of “E – The Environmental Magazine”,Greetings from South Korea.
I have just had a quick read of your interview with Laurie Garrett, the person described by your magazine as being extraordinarily well-positioned to talk about avian influenza. I would not dare for a moment to doubt her journalistic credentials, or her knowledge of disease. However, it is clear, as someone who is deeply and actively involved in the conservation of East Asian migratory birds(especially waterbirds), that Laurie Garrett neither knows much about birds, migration or bird flyways in Asia – and most disappointing, nor did she make the necessary efforts to learn about them.
The introduction (repeated in her interview) includes this would-be-amusing-description-in-another-context paragraph:
“The virus is normally carried by aquatic migratory birds, including ducks and geese, that transverse the Asian Flyway, extending from southern Indonesia all the way up into the Arctic Circle of Siberia. The largest landmass on this migratory route is China, which has really devastated its natural ecology. So the birds are unable to find many pristine natural places to land as they make their migration every year. They’re landing on farms and getting into fights with domestic animals over food and water. “For the record:
1) Although “aquatic migratory birds”, usually called migratory waterbirds, do migrate along Flyways, the Flyway that extends from Indonesia through China up to the Arctic Circle of Siberia is called the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, not the “Asian Flyway”.
2) Although ducks and geese do use the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, only one northern-breeding species of duck occurs in Indonesia at all regularly, albeit scarcely. The vast majority of duck species and individuals do not migrate as far south. Indeed, in survey data contained in the Asian Waterbird Census, for the years 1999-2001 (in a report published by Wetlands International in 2004 and edited by David Li and Dr. Taej Mundkur), ZERO northern ducks were recorded in surveys of 67 Indonesian wetlands. In addition, ZERO northern geese occur naturally in Indonesia. So why the clear suggestion that ducks and geese migrate from Siberia to sourthern Indonesia?
3) The flyway actually extends through eastern Asia to New Zealand and Australia in the south and Alaska to the north. However, neither New Zealand, Australia nor Alaska were included in the description of the Flyway by Ms Garrett. Is this because, as far as I am aware, there have not yet been any outbreaks of H5N1 “poultry flu” in those countries? In the same vein, why the mention of Indonesia, unless to insinuate the outbreaks there were being caused by migratory birds?
4) Not all species of waterbird need pristine wetlands: many are adapted to modified landscapes, some are not. The idea that widespread habitat loss, which has likely led to very major declines in populations of some species, leads to “fights” between waterbirds and domestic animals is, well, comical. Being objective, I would not attempt at all to claim that some waterbirds do not use farm ponds, and that some other species take grain etc (they clearly do; some species even depend on it in some areas) — but this seems very different from an unnecessarily overdramatic description, perhaps further fuelling peoples’ deeper fears, conjuring up some distorted image along the unimaginable lines of “rabid ducks attack cows” …very Hitchcock.
Why should I take the time to point all of this out? Why the need to?
Within the past few weeks, as poultry flu caused by H5N1 continues to spread and as the Unites States and Europe begin to feel threatened by it, an increasing number of national and international media are simply and irresponsibly insinuating or stating that wild birds are not only the victims of this disease, but also the vector. An increasing number of people are calling for culls of wild birds. Misreporting will lead to the increased risk of culls, and will also mean that resources that could be used to fight the outbreaks – by better regulating the poultry industy – are wasted.
It is clear that the disease is spreading. It is clear that various strains of this virus can be found in wild waterbirds. It is clear that in some cases wild birds are killed by it. What is not clear and what has not been proven is that migratory waterbirds are actually spreading it.
On the other hand, as most of the rest of her interview suggests, there is abundance evidence linking the disease to poultry. The vast majority of infected chickens are in areas where there are no waterbirds to ” fight with”, and the disease has broken out most extensively in countries which have very poor standards of hygiene in the poultry industry, and few enforced restrictions on the caged bird trade. In addition, the disease outbreaks, as far as I am aware, do not match the timing of bird migrations into affected areas.
This is all very important circumstantial evidence. And it is omitted from the article.
Another blinding omission is that most species that migrate to northern Siberia along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway actually mix there with other species or other populations of the same species of waterbird from different flyways – flyways that are used by small numbers of individuals that “switch” flyways, and by many more individuals with different migration strategies taking them into other regions. There are so very many examples. One is the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper that winters in Australia and to a much lesser extent southern SE Asia; migrates through China and Korea into Siberia; breeds; then migrates across to Alaska, before migrating back down to Australia. Greater White-fronted Geese that winter in China, Korea and Japan breed on the Siberian Arctic Tundra, where they nest in areas with small numbers of nesting Lesser Snow Goose, that then migrate down through Alaska into California; Sanderlings from Southern Australia migrating to the Arctic where they likely meet individuals that will migrate south to Europe …these examples, well-known to most ornithologists of the region, are just a few picked at randon from a very long list.
Why did the article not ask: If this disease is being carried by wild migratory birds along the Flyway in Asia, then why does it still remain confined to Asia?
Considering all of this, it is clear that the major reservoir for the disease is the huge number of poultry (far, far outnumbering waterbirds anyway with an estimated 70 billion reared annually in Asia alone!); and the spread of the disease is surely rather more likely to be through the movement of poultry and caged bird trade within Asia, than through spread by wild birds that know no borders.
I would urge your magazine, as a magazine focussing on environmental issues, to correct this dangerous imbalance in the article. I would respectfully urge you to stop the spread of fear of winged “ballistic missiles”, to focus on the inhumane and unhygenic practices of the poultry industry, and to help stop the spread of the disease through providing fact and not fiction.
真摯地，
尼爾·摩爾斯
韓國鳥類協會主任
尼爾·摩爾斯
韓國鳥類協會：致力於保護鳥類的國家和國際網絡
鳥類及其棲息地。[url]Http://www.birdskorea.org[/url]
文章中有關候鳥和流感的段落非常好奇：
引用：禽流感來自水生鳥類，包括候鳥、鵝和蒼鷺。加勒特解釋說，這些鳥類在中國的遷徙路線消失，使它們在農場和公園裡與人類直接接觸。透過這種方式，流感從候鳥傳播到家禽，然後傳播到豬，最終傳播到人類。鳥類並沒有失去遷徙路線；人類已經進入遷徙路線——而且是在全世界範圍內進行的。
從演化的角度來看，農場和公園是許多鳥類棲息的新棲息地（有些鳥類成為了農田專家）。
如果加勒特去過中國，她就會知道，在中國的大部分農田裡找到鳥類是非常困難的——農業如此集約化，以至於剩下的稍微荒蕪的土地幾乎為零[甚至沒有樹籬、粗糙的草地等，而在英國等地仍相當常見] ）。
此外，城市公園通常非常安靜，不適合許多水鳥（北京頤和園，如果你可以稱其為公園，是我能想到的少數例外之一 - 對鴨子有好處）。在世界範圍內，人類長期以來一直與鳥類直接接觸——狩獵它們，並飼養一些鳥類，如雞和鴨。
自97年以來，需要透過豬傳播給人類的觀念已被證明是錯誤的：這種h5n1變種可以直接從家禽傳播給人類（訪談中提到了這一點）。
這一段是採訪序言的一部分——所以我想知道是否是採訪作者而不是加勒特在這裡犯了錯誤。 （儘管它開頭是這樣說的：「正如加勒特所解釋的…）
在採訪中，加勒特確實說：
引用：即使現在，世界衛生組織、世界動物衛生組織和聯合國糧食及農業組織之間也沒有真正順暢的運作關係。因此，聯合國體系中處理動物和農業問題的機構並不像人們所希望的那樣與世界衛生組織緊密相連，反之亦然。美國的製度也是如此。我們的美國農業部和衛生與公眾服務部並不是很好的夥伴。傳統上處理農業的機構往往將捍衛農業作為其使命宣言。所以他們與農業的經濟面密切相關，而衛生機構往往對此持懷疑態度，並與一種完全不同的經濟聯繫在一起。因此，它在這些力量之間創造了一種自然的緊張關係，並一直滲透到普通的醫生、普通的獸醫、普通的野生動物科學家或生態學家。因此，橋樑還沒有在機構層面或個人層面上建立。
– 保衛農業；確實如此，我認為正是這一點導致了人們將責任歸咎於野生鳥類，而不是真正的罪魁禍首——農業。
貼文編輯：martin，發佈於：2005/08/13 05:48
哦親愛的。
早在年前，我就在 Garrett 女士的論壇上發布了有關野鳥和 h5n1 的信息，但她似乎還沒有理解這個問題，而是仍然是牙仙鳥的堅定信徒。在看到她最近在 Promed 上出現了這樣的內容後，我注意到了這一點：
引用：隨著亞洲報告的 H5N1 疫情數量不斷增加，我正在努力
盤點今年春天的流行趨勢。鑑於厄爾尼諾現象影響深遠
今年 [2007] 振盪 (ENSO) 對歐洲和北美的影響，我
我想知道關於亞洲水生鳥類遷徙和 ENSO 的了解。 A
粗略的資料庫檢查發現混亂。氣溫似乎升高
減少一些歐洲移民。但降雨量增加
太平洋的 ENSO 似乎增加了鳥類的繁殖和遷徙
樹木發芽、堅果形成和昆蟲數量增加的結果。有人清楚了解全球氣候波動的周期性嗎？
影響水鳥物種的遷移模式？例如，有
經常飛越亞洲飛往西伯利亞的鳥類或多或少可能會跳躍
白令河到阿拉斯加？鳥類出現在大西洋遷徙路線的可能性是大還是小？
從格陵蘭島移民到加拿大北部？—
勞瑞·加勒特
全球健康高級研究員
外交關係委員會
紐約, 紐約 10021我已透過電子郵件向勞裡·加勒特發送了一些訊息：
嗨勞裡：
我想你會發現牙仙鳥的遷徙路徑變化很大。
並不真正隨氣候而波動；相反，它在發現 H5N1 的地方遷徙，官員們不願承認真正的原因。
至於真實的鳥類：首先讓我們看看是否有任何實際物種已被證明能夠生存、維持和傳播 H5N1。
……你回答這個問題怎麼樣？
….
錯了，是這麼想的。
所以，你確實對牙仙鳥的動作感興趣。
祝你好運。此致，
馬丁威廉斯博士
- 抱緊，回歸主題必須先登錄。