Avian Flu

[disney1990]

ABC News is doing reports on Avian (Bird) Flu all this week. The head of the Health and Human Services Administration said today that they expect Avian Flu to be in the United States (Alaska) within the next 3 weeks and in the rest of the United States by August.

I imagine that those places in the Animal Kingdom where you walk through the bird exhibits and the bird show in Animal Kingdom will become a thing of the past before the end of the year. And all of those petting places with turkeys and chickens will become a thing of the past.

My Sister in Law and her Husband have chickens that they raise. I imagine that we will see scenes in the United States such as we have seen in other countries where these are destroyed.

They say that eating well cooked chicken is not a problem. Cats in other countries that have eaten dead birds have become infected.

On top of all of this, there was a confirmation today of a third case of Mad Cow in the United States.

 

[luvwinnie]

Just found this. Wish I knew about the ABC special earlier.

 

[SamIAm21]

There's a story going on here in Chicagoland about a man who, while trying to keep his property free of Canadian geese (and we have millions around here) accidentally killed one. He fired pellets into the air, mostly for the noise effect, but one pellet actually killed a goose. When they say the disease will be spread by migratory birds, I am pretty sure they mean those geese, which do fly long long distances.

I feel sorry for the guy. He says he has to clean up their droppings all the time off his driveway and in his yard. He could face up to a year in prison and $5,000 fine. Here's a guy trying to keep his little piece of land clean and he has to deal with this...

However, if these flocks of geese start dying from Avian flu, you can bet the Health Department will sweep in and wipe out thousands at a time.

 

[nliedel]

Please note that those people who have contracted Avian Flu thus far are living in close proximity to their birds. They are sleeping the same quarters with their birds. Turthfully unless you are in the same room as your birds or a breeder in confines with them for hours a day (and with US factory farming I doubt that Avian Flu will get into those closed areas from wild birds easily) you will not be at a greater risk for Avian Flu. It is only if this flu crosses the species barrier and is transmitted human to human that it poses a danger. That said the more people that get this flu the greater the chance that they will have both the H5N1 strain and another strain of flu so the mutation can happen.

There is an innocluation that birds can get for this flu and I imagine places that have birds that come into contact with humans will use that for the birds.

 

[disney1990]

Here's the link for a lost of what ABC covered, including videos.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Flu/?CMP=yahoo_health

 

[Miss Jasmine]

The sky is falling...the sky is falling.

I'm ready...like I said on the other thread, I have three months worth of booze stockpiled!