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Bird flu has killed 2,600 turkeys at a farm in England. The virus has been confirmed and many more birds will probably have to be culled, possibly up to 159,000.

Yes. This time as many as 1,60,000 turkeys could now be slaughtered as a precautionary measure. You can find further information at these links.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jht...ird203.xml

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/177947

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breakin...king28.htm

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1077745

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6327529.stm

Warm Christian Love
Bangalore

Hi all,
Can bird flu be prevented?



On a more serious note, possibly the Starling is the vector for passing the disease from geese and ducks to other birds. They interface with wild ducks and geese on one hand and passerines on the other.

Presumably these turkeys were kept inside and shouldn't have interfaced with wild birds.  There is also the possibility the outbreak may be of a less noxious form of h5n1.

The general view, in birding circles, is that the extent of this disease in wild birds is overstated and blown up out of proportion.

The pandemic, if or when it comes, will very likely come out of Asia where humans interface with birds continuously and very poor hygeine exists there.

Bird flu pales into insignificance compared with prospect of what man is doing to planet earth by changing the worlds climate.

As Corporal Jones used to say,"Don't panic!" "Don't panic!"

Derek

Hi all,
It is now reported that the outbreak of Bird Flu in the UK IS the most virulent form. They suspect small wild birds getting into the turkey house via ventilator shafts may well be the cause of the spread.

It is not considered a risk to humans not handling birds and eating meat should not be a problem.
Derek

Hi Vicky, Bangolore and all,
I see the same firm that had the outbreak in the UK had one last week in Eastern Europe in a similar facility!

There is reckoned to be a possibility that the biosecurity was not all that good or possibly imported eggs for incubation could have been the cause of the problem.

One would have thought, if it was wild birds, those who have poultry reared outside, would have been first to be affected?

I wonder if they will hush it up as they did with the problem of imported 'bush meat' causing foot and mouth via pig swill!?

Peace and well being to you all
Derek

My mother told me of a documentry that she had watched about a pig farmer that decided to change over to raise turkeys instead. Apparently it was so difficult to bring them up without medications that he switched back to raising pigs. He felt that the turkeys loaded with chemicals were much worse for peoples health than the pork. Turkeys don't seem to have a pig's stomach I guess. I can understand now why organic turkeys are twice as expensive and more the size of a larger chicken.

All turkeys please line up for your annual flu shot.:farmer:

Bird flu virus mutating into human-unfriendly form
http://www.propeller.com/viewstory/2007/...s-mutating
-into-human-unfriendly-form/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%
2Fs%2Fnm%2F20071005%2Fhl_nm%2Fbirdflu_mutations_dc%3B_
ylt%3DAkz1OfA75KFOXPdRpHBgtzGs0NUE&frame=true

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Thu Oct 4, 8:10 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The H5N1 bird flu virus has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain, researchers said on Thursday.

The changes are worrying, said Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"We have identified a specific change that could make bird flu grow in the upper respiratory tract of humans," said Kawaoka, who led the study.

"The viruses that are circulating in Africa and Europe are the ones closest to becoming a human virus," Kawaoka said.

Recent samples of virus taken from birds in Africa and Europe all carry the mutation, Kawaoka and colleagues report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens.

"I don't like to scare the public, because they cannot do very much. But at the same time it is important to the scientific community to understand what is happening," Kawaoka said in a telephone interview.

The H5N1 avian flu virus, which mostly infects birds, has since 2003 infected 329 people in 12 countries, killing 201 of them. It very rarely passes from one person to another, but if it acquires the ability to do so easily, it likely will cause a global epidemic.

All flu viruses evolve constantly and scientists have some ideas about what mutations are needed to change a virus from one that infects birds easily to one more comfortable in humans.

Birds usually have a body temperature of 106 degrees F, and humans are 98.6 degrees F usually. The human nose and throat, where flu viruses usually enter, is usually around 91.4 degrees F.

"So usually the bird flu doesn't grow well in the nose or throat of humans," Kawaoka said. This particular mutation allows H5N1 to live well in the cooler temperatures of the human upper respiratory tract.

H5N1 caused its first mass die-off among wild waterfowl in 2005 at Qinghai Lake in central China, where hundreds of thousands of migratory birds congregate.

That strain of the virus was carried across Asia to Africa and Europe by migrating birds. Its descendants carry the mutation, Kawaoka said.

"So the viruses circulating in Europe and Africa, they all have this mutation. So they are the ones that are closer to human-like flu," Kawaoka said.

Luckily, they do not carry other mutations, he said.

"Clearly there are more mutations that are needed. We don't know how many mutations are needed for them to become pandemic strains."