Is it safe to slaughter chicken and handle dead chicken in outbreak areas?
In backyard production settings, the system of marketing live birds and the practices of home slaughtering, defeathering and eviscerating, create opportunities for extensive human exposure to potentially contaminated parts of poultry. Therefore, the wearing of protective gear, and practicing measures to prevent personal contamination, is essential. A large number of confirmed human cases are believed to have acquired their infection during the slaughtering or subsequent handling of diseased or dead birds prior to cooking. For this reason, such practices involving obviously diseased or birds found dead must be stopped. In general, birds found in a diseased state or dead should never be used for human consumption. The H5N1 avian influenza virus spreads to virtually all parts of an infected bird, including blood, meat and bones. Avian influenza viruses survive in contaminated raw poultry meat and therefore can be spread through the marketing and distribution of contaminated food products,
