Rural villagers and urban residents exposure to poultry in China

Zhibin Peng; Peng Wu; Li Ge; Richard Fielding; Xiaowen Cheng; Weike Su; Min Ye; Ying Shi; Qiaohong Liao; Hang Zhou; Lei Zhou; Leilei Li; Jiabing Wu; Shunxiang Zhang; Zhangda Yu; Xiaomin Wu; Hanwu Ma; Jianhua Lu; Benjamin J Cowling; Hongjie Yu

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095430

Rural villagers and urban residents exposure to poultry in China

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 25;9(4):e95430. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095430. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Zhibin Peng¹, Peng Wu², Li Ge³, Richard Fielding², Xiaowen Cheng⁴, Weike Su⁵, Min Ye⁶, Ying Shi¹, Qiaohong Liao¹, Hang Zhou¹, Lei Zhou⁷, Leilei Li⁷, Jiabing Wu⁸, Shunxiang Zhang⁴, Zhangda Yu⁹, Xiaomin Wu⁴, Hanwu Ma⁴, Jianhua Lu⁴, Benjamin J Cowling², Hongjie Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Disease, Key Laboratory of Surveillance and Early-warning on Infectious Disease, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
² University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region, China.
³ Xiangyang Center Hospital, Xiangyang, China.
⁴ Shenzhen Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenzhen, China.
⁵ Xiuning Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Xiuning, China.
⁶ Zhoushan Entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Zhoushan, China.
⁷ Public Health Emergency Center, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
⁸ Anhui Provincial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hefei, China.
⁹ Huanshan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Huangshan, China.

Abstract

Patterns of poultry exposure in rural and urban areas in China have not been systematically evaluated and compared. The objective of our study is to investigate patterns in human exposure to poultry in rural and urban China. We conducted a two-stage household-based clustered survey on population exposure to live/sick/dead poultry in Xiuning and Shenzhen. Half of the rural households (51%) in Xiuning raised poultry, mostly (78%) free-range. Around half of those households (40%) allowed poultry to stay in their living areas. One quarter of villagers reported having contact with sick or dead poultry. In Shenzhen, 37% urban residents visited live poultry markets. Among these, 40% purchased live poultry and 16% touched the poultry or cages during purchase. Our findings indicated that human exposure to poultry was different in rural and urban areas in China. This discrepancy could contribute to the observed differences in epidemiologic characteristics between urban and rural cases of influenza A(H7N9) and A(H5N1) virus infection.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Animals
Child
Child, Preschool
China / epidemiology
Environmental Exposure*
Female
Humans
Influenza in Birds / epidemiology
Influenza in Birds / transmission*
Influenza in Birds / virology
Influenza, Human / epidemiology
Influenza, Human / transmission*
Influenza, Human / virology
Male
Middle Aged
Poultry
Risk Factors
Rural Population
Surveys and Questionnaires
Urban Population
Young Adult
Zoonoses

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from the China-U.S. Collaborative Program on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases, and from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China [grant number 2004BA519A17 and 2006BAD06A02]. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.