Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ)
Since the highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu was first confirmed in Australian wild birds in June, it has rapidly spread around the continent – and among different species. The virus has been linked to the deaths of more than 1,000 crested terns in South Australia, as well as two dozen little penguins in Tasmania. It has also jumped to long-nosed fur seals.
Attention has now turned to vaccination. Wildlife officers in Victoria have begun an unprecedented program to vaccinate thousands of little penguins, while the federal government has committed funding to protect vulnerable native birds.
The science is modern. But some of the practical questions are surprisingly old. Ancient Greek and Roman writers were already asking how birds became sick, what signs to look for, and what could be done when disease appeared in them.
We cannot identify any ancient disease securely as avian influenza. Ancient writers do, however, provide evidence for close observation of outbreaks of disease among poultry and attempts to prevent them.
Birds and people in ancient Greece and Rome
Birds were deeply woven into everyday life in ancient Greece and Rome. They were eaten, bred, sold, kept around houses and watched for religious signs. Their usefulness meant people observed them closely.
Discussing birds, the Roman encyclopaedist Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 CE) wrote that:
The people of Delos began the practice of fattening hens.
Birds were fattened and bought and sold as economically valuable sources of meat and eggs.
Birds could also live very close to people. Athenaeus, a Greek writer who lived around the late second and early third centuries CE, describes the purple gallinule as a bird which, once domesticated, lived familiarly within the household:
it keeps a close eye on the married women in the house, and feels so strongly about the situation, if one of them is seduced, that when it suspects that this is going on, it informs its master by hanging itself.
Birds also had religious importance. Greeks and Romans interpreted their flight, cries and feeding behaviour as signs from the gods, while Roman officials famously observed sacred chickens before major decisions.
So birds were not peripheral to human life. They were food, property and companions, and also part of religious life. This helps explain why illness among them was noticed so readily.
Did ancient Greeks and Romans observe bird health?
Ancient writers paid close attention to what healthy and unhealthy birds look like.
Aristotle (384–322 BCE), the Greek philosopher and naturalist, thought weather could affect them.
In his History of Animals, he writes that “for the birds it is the rainy years that are unbeneficial”, and then gives a very simple diagnostic sign:
When birds are in poor health their plumage shows it, for it is disturbed and does not have the same orderliness as when they are healthy.
It is a wonderfully down-to-earth observation: sick birds looked different, and their feathers gave them away.
Did ancient Greeks and Romans know about avian influenza?
Ancient writers could not identify avian influenza as we understand it today, and no ancient outbreak can be securely diagnosed as H5N1. But they clearly recognised diseases affecting poultry and tried to control them.
The best evidence comes from Columella, a Roman agricultural writer of the first century CE. In his On Agriculture, he discusses what he describes as a “fatal disease”, a kind of cold that affected poultry.
Its symptoms were swelling and pus in and around the eyes, loss of appetite, and mucus in the throat.
According to Columella, the first response was to maintain hygiene standards in the area:
we shall give them the purest possible water in the cleanest possible vessels.
Farmers, he advised, should
frequently fumigate the hen-houses and keep them cleansed from dung.
If “the pestilence persists”, Columella recommends remedies including garlic soaked in warm oil. In severe cases, when the pus “surrounds the eyes and the fowl now rejects its food”, he describes surgical treatment.
He also tried to identify causes. The disease, he says, arose especially when birds suffered from “the cold and from poor feeding”, or when “water standing in the poultry-yard is drunk”.
So it’s clear that even in antiquity people already connected bird health with clean water, waste removal and shared living conditions.
Is there an ancient lesson?
The lesson from antiquity is fairly simple. Columella noticed that the health of poultry depended partly on the conditions in which birds were kept: clean water, adequate food and clean housing mattered.
That has a clear modern parallel. H5N1 is caused by a virus, but close contact between birds and contaminated environments can help it spread.
The ancients did not understand the biological mechanism. But they already recognised that disease among birds can quickly spread, and that measures need to be taken quickly to prevent this.
Konstantine Panegyres does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/08/26/frequently-fumigate-the-hen-houses-how-ancient-greeks-and-romans-tried-to-treat-sick-birds/