Rice Production Systems and Avian Influenza: Interactions between Mixed-farming Systems, Poultry and Wild Birds.

The article discusses interactions between mixed-farming systems, poultry and wild birds and their possible contributions towards the persistence and distribution of a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPA1) strain, H5N1. H5N1 causes severe diseases and deaths of wild birds, poultry, and humans. Potential spread of the low pathogenic avian influenza virus (AIV) is being attributed to mixed farming and the migration of wild birds though no evidence so far show that the more virulent HPA1 exists in the wild.