A poor cull in Egypt

Egypt has seen scores of human cases of bird flu, the largest number in any country outside Asia, since the first known appearance of the H5N1 virus in humans more than four years ago. Bird flu deaths in Egypt are now at 22 and climbing, and as if that weren’t enough the threat of the swine flu virus (H1N1) is also hanging over the country. The livelihoods of pig breeders, and of those who raise chickens in home gardens to help feed a family or generate extra income, have been threatened by government culls of swine and fowl to combat the two forms of influenza. Most bird flu victims are those who look after chickens, typically poorer people in the countryside. Though raising pigs is not a big deal in Egypt, rearing poultry at home is important for the incomes of a significant number of people in rural areas; recent