Bird Flu

Buy one bird and get one free. Make sure it doesn't sneeze on you. Avian flu has finally reaches British shores. 2600 Turkeys died since Tuesday on a Suffolk farm. 160000 were gassed to death by the officials. Tests have showed that the flu is highly pathogenic H5N1 which has killed thousands of birds What is Avian Flu? Like people birds suffer from flu as well. There are dozens of different versions of Avian flu. H5 which is the killer has nine different versions, only one of these, H5N1 is deadly for humans. It is also highly pathogenic and that is why so many birds are dying. How many people have died from ...  Read the complete review

Another year and another virus that causes mass hysteria amongst the media. This year’s new fad is Bird Flu. I am writing this opinion after a strain of the virus was found amongst chickens not too far from Norwich. So does this mean the 35,000 chickens will obliterate the whole of Norfolk? No not really. So far the only reported fatality in Norwich is the death of 20,000 canaries. This death occurred sometime in August last year but only hit home in recent months! But seriously the local media hysteria on the radio was insane, I listened to constant repetition on the situation of the chickens, how people from the surrounding areas where incredibly worried. ...  Read the complete review

As I write this I have just seen two families feeding bread to the ducks and swans close by and wonder if all the panicking that I have witnessed lately on the news is all a bit over the top. Don't get me wrong we should definately be concerned but have you heard that people have been taking their pets birds to the pet shops stating that they are concerned they may catch bird flu I mean really are people seriously that stupid? Avian influenza in birds the correct term for bird flu is an infection caused by flu viruses in birds. Wild birds carry the virus in their intestines but do not usually get sick from it. The virus however is spread from ...  Read the complete review

History has a way of reminding us that we are far from mortal. Despite the millions that died in the curiously named Great War or First World War of 1914 – 1918, it was the Spanish flu that followed in 1918 that killed significantly more. Billed as THE most devastating plague in history, approximately one billion people (half the world’s population) were infected and around one in 20 died. Therein lies some staggering statistics. The worrying thing is that the flu concerned was a virus that was found to be a bird virus that had changed to enable it to transmit readily from person to person. At the moment, the present H5N 1 virus is only transmitted between ...  Read the complete review

There have been a number of articles here that have talked about bird flu. In particular the H5N1 strain currently in the spotlight. Having read a number of contradictory viewpoints each going into various levels of detail, I thought it might be useful to look at some of the science behind the issue and hence the risk posed to humans. What exactly is H5N1? ------------------------- The first thing one needs to understand is the nature of the different strains and their relationships to each other. There are 3 types of flu viruses named ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’. Types ‘B’ and ‘C’ are outside the scope of this article/review/ramble or ...  Read the complete review