Poultry food products—a source of avian influenza virus transmission to humans?  T.C. Harder, S. Buda, H. Hengel, M. Beer, T.C. Mettenleiter  Clinical Microbiology and Infection  Volume 22, Issue 2, Pages 141-146 (February 2016) DOI: 10.1016/j.cmi.2015.11.015 Copyright © 2015 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Terms and Conditions

Fig. 1 Mouth-to-beak watering of a pigeon fledgling at a live poultry market in Cairo, Egypt—an unusual human–poultry interface. Given the often hot climatic conditions young pigeons require frequent watering when presented for sale at live poultry markets in Egypt. As the birds are too young to effectively drink enough water themselves (pigeon fledglings are used to being fed a ‘crop milk’ by their parents) ‘assisted’ watering is required. The animal keeper sucks up a mouthful of water from a bucket (left) and then installs the head of a fledgling into his mouth while forcing open the beak of the bird between his thumb and forefinger (right). Water from his mouth is then pressed into the crop of the fledgling. This habit is considered absolutely common practice. Although pigeons can be experimentally infected by HPAIV H5N1, and some natural infections have been reported (including cases from Egypt), this species is generally considered to have a very low susceptibility to AIV infections [58]. Nevertheless, other (zoonotic) pathogens may be present. Clinical Microbiology and Infection 2016 22, 141-146DOI: (10.1016/j.cmi.2015.11.015) Copyright © 2015 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Terms and Conditions