Consider the birds: culling of chickens leads to staple food shortages

“Council of Agriculture (COA) chief Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) apologized to the public on Tuesday for egg supply chain issues that have resulted in shortages of the food staple in markets around Taiwan,” reported Taiwan’s Central News Agency, Wednesday, February 22.

The shortage has been driven by a global outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza, which has affected poultry and egg production across the U.S., Europe, Japan and Korea, Chen said.

In Taiwan, authorities have confirmed 74 cases of H5N1 to date and culled 1.03 million chickens on the affected farms.

So far, the government’s culling of chickens exceeds the number of birds that allegedly died from the actual virus by a factor of 13,919.

However, Taiwan’s English language media outlets blame the avian influenza virus for the shortage of eggs and consequent price rises for the basic staple food. “Taiwan egg prices continue to rise due to avian flu,” reported Taiwan News, February 13.

At Taiwan English News we tally the score as Government intervention: 1.03 million deaths. Virus: 74 dead chickens. The government is clearly winning in this battle.

At the time of writing, there are no visible reductions in the number of sparrows. Have the sparrows been vaccinated or do they have natural immunity?

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