wats this stuff about avian flu on tv?

[Mogli]

i heard something on the news on tv this morning about avin flu i mean i knw theres been stuff out there about avian flu b4 but wats the big issue so does it mean my chickens have avian flu? even though this flock of hens i have now r avian flu tested and have past the test the guy i bought them from had them avian tested does that mean people like us that have small backyard flocks can we catch avian flu off of our backyard chickens isnt it airborne or some someother sort of way? is there anything to worry about

 

[GreenMeadows]

I might be wrong but I thought if you have like ducks and geese or birds fly over and poop and your birds peck in it of walk through it and preen them self and eat ithe poo then they can get it. I have been tested and am clean but we have a creek and the state vet was worried because we have waterfowl flying over.
Quote:

 

[saladin]

The only thing I've heard concerning AI in the last week as being concerning the human manufactor of a mutated form of AI in the Lab.

 

[nnbreeder]

It must have been a slow news day. LOL

The best defense against getting overloaded by media hype is to do your research on the subject. There are major differences between the H1N1 strain that is usually found here in the US and the H5N1 strain that is still prevalent overseas.

I think it was Nova on PBS that did an excellent program about it years ago and you might try to find that online and watch it.

As far as catching it from your birds yourself it is not very likely, there are species barriers that the virus would have to mutate to cross and with modern ways of doing things it really cuts down the risk.

 

[nurse_turtle]

It's a government conspiracy designed to scare you into getting yourself, your family, your friends and strangers to run to the nearest clinic and beg for the "flu" shot which is manufactured by a company in which the US gov't has great stock.

I realize that sounds a bit intense, but many a truth....

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
You had your birds tested? Really?
This scare is about one bird dead in a market in Hong Knong.

 

[IowaHeritage]

Here is what was in the news :


December 21, 2011

Hong Kong health authorities are slaughtering more than 17,000 chickens at a market after a chicken carcass there was found to be infected with bird flu.


Officials in the southern Chinese city said today that the bird tested positive for the dangerous H5N1 strain of avian influenza. They have also banned live poultry imports for three weeks and are trying to determine whether the infected chicken was imported or came from one of Hong Kong’s 30 chicken farms.

Agricultural officials have inspected all 30 farms but found nothing unusual.

H5N1 occasionally infects people who have close contact with infected poultry, particularly in parts of Asia. Globally, 331 people have died from bird flu since it was first detected in 2003.

 

[GhostRider65]

Quote:
OH so very right and you can bet if there ever is such a flu it was most likely our government that made it in a lab and turned it loose on us Guinna pigs......

 

[nnbreeder]

Actually the H5N1 strain is very close to the strain involved in the 1918 pandemic that killed millions of people worldwide.

It is a theory that sick and dead birds were fed to hogs which were then slaughtered and fed to the troops of WW-I, this coupled with troop movements spread the disease world-wide. The virus mutated to conform to the immune systems of the hogs and since hogs are very close to humans it had to do very little to mutate again to infect the human population.

I once read that there are well over 500,000 birds imported to Hong Kong daily for consumption by humans and fowl of all type are still a staple food. Flocks are such a precous comodity that the rural farmers will bring their flocks into the house at night to protect them from being stolen. In most places the population is so poor that if a dead bird is found it is not wasted, it's put in the pot for supper. It is practices such as this that helped the H5N1 strain to make the species jump, the people that got the virus were just overwelmed with it in their daily life and once it mutated to attack the human immune system it could jump from sick to healthy humans readily.

As far as I know there is not yet a vaccine for the H5N1 strain of influenza for humans. Last I researched it the vaccine was still in the devolopment stage, There are a limited number of labs working on the vaccine because it is so dangerous to have the actual virus around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic