In this morning’s South China Morning Post there is an article about how the poultry trade is the likely mechanism through which the H7N9 strain of Avian Flu is spreading. The article cites Professor Malik Peiris, an Epidemiologist and specialist in Zoonosis, as its main source of information. Prof. Peiris is no doubt an expert in his field of clinical virology. He has written hundreds of papers on the science of animal to human viral transfer.  He is probably right. You put infected animals in close contact with humans the disease will spread. One way that humans come into close contact is through the movement of infected animals to markets to be sold.  Where I disagree with Professor Peiris’ assessment is when he proposes a solution that involves closing the wet markets. Continue reading →