Background

Many human diseases have emerged from the infections of wild and domesticated animals. Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) is the most recent example. The spread of HPAI, its actual impacts on agriculture and its potential impacts on human health, put this disease at the forefront of global human safety and development policy dialogues. While there is fear that the virus may mutate into a strain capable of human-to-human transmission, the greatest impacts to date have been on the highly diverse poultry industries in affected countries. Recent infections of HPAI have resulted in the destruction of more than 140 million birds in South East Asia alone, with costs estimated to be in excess of US$ 10 billion (World Bank 2006. Avian Flu Economic Analysis: Global Program for Avian Influenza and Human Pandemic). If a one year pandemic were to occur it could lead to global economic losses in the region of US $800 billion (World Bank 2006).

Much of the effort to date has focused on implementing prevention and eradication measures in poultry populations. Much less emphasis has been placed on the assessment of the effects of these mitigation strategies on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and their families in affected countries.