Freight Transporters Making Bird Flu Contingency Plans

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rucking, rail and other shipping companies are busy making plans in case a bird flu pandemic hits the United States, Reuters reported Monday.

Companies are focusing on how they would function during a potential pandemic without spreading contagion in a business where human interaction is inevitable, Reuters said.

The story quoted a spokesman for UPS Inc., the No. 1 company in the Transport Topics 100, as saying the freight transportation is “on the front line.”

The U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics said in a January report called “Freight in America” that that more than 10% of the U.S. gross domestic product is related to transportation activity.

Last week the American Trucking Associations’ Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference established an Avian Flu Task Force to help prepare the trucking industry for the possibility of an influenza pandemic. (Click here for previous coverage.)

A growing number of infected birds found in Western Europe has raised concerns the often-fatal disease could mutate into a form that could be easily transmitted between humans, Reuters reported.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has to date killed 97 people, mostly in Southeast Asia. Turkey is only country in Europe to record any human deaths from the disease, which so far can be transmitted only by direct contact with infected birds, Reuters said.

Health officials and scientists warn such a pandemic could infect millions within months.