HN51 aware?

[xoxoxoBruce]

and no more stealing that random kid's candy unless they haven't shoved it in their mouth, yet.

The 10 second rule is repealed.

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by glatt

...Here in the West, we keep our poultry in barns and can isolate them pretty easily....

If it's the same in the USA as here in the UK, then there are many individuals around who keep chickens, ducks and geese in very small numbers and these tend to roam outside. It's knowing that the message and instructions to isolate such collections, keeping them under cover, could fail to be acknowledged or heard that presents the achilles heel here.

Most UK commercial poultry farmers have too much to lose to ignore government instructions and recommendations - in fact those that normally would have to protect their organic and free range status by allowing their birds to roam have already been given dispensation to keep them under cover without affecting this status - a safeguard to address this otherwise high-risk categorisation requirement.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by Cyclefrance

If it's the same in the USA as here in the UK, then there are many individuals around who keep chickens, ducks and geese in very small numbers and these tend to roam outside. It's knowing that the message and instructions to isolate such collections, keeping them under cover, could fail to be acknowledged or heard that presents the achilles heel here.

It's the same. I've got a flock of chickens here doing the free range thing. I'll have to off the whole bunch if things get ugly. This is that weird case where the pathetic chickens stuffed in little cages with their beaks ground is healthier than running around in the grass. We've never had migratory fowl in close proximity so we're probably cool but I'm going to stay educated on it. We already do the barn boots don't leave the farm thing...

[Skunks]

Between this and the recent mad cow sighting, I can only ask:

How's being vegetarian sound?

[be-bop]

A bear and a chicken were arguing in the woods,
Bear "I'm the toughest in the woods I growl and the whole woods shits themselves in fear".

Chicken " That's fuck all,I sneeze and the whole country shits themselves in fear".

[wolf]

The Tower of London Ravens have been moved indoors.

Apparently, if they die the sun sets on the British Empire or something.

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by wolf

The Tower of London Ravens have been moved indoors.

Apparently, if they die the sun sets on the British Empire or something.

I think our current government have already beaten them when it comes to to achieving that

Anyone who is worried about bird flu and who has a domestic cat that they allow to roam out of doors might want to take a lesson from the Tower of London's ravens and, also, confine kitty indoors. Bird flu has already been discovered in the cat-like civet and could easily spread among populations of domestic cats both here and in Europe. I wanted to make my little (well, now Big!) Siamese an indoor cat, but he's quite the sly escape artist and sometimes eludes me to go out on adventures. Yesterday he made an escape and returned with a single downy bird feather stuck to the corner of his mouth. The little rapscallion!

[Elspode]

If he starts sneezing, run.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That could just be feathers up his nose.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by marichiko

Bird flu has already been discovered in the cat-like civet

Yet another reason for eschewing civet cat "coffee".
Somewhere in this meaty thread someone did mention that Rumsfeld owns major stock in Tamiflu? He is like the Cigarette-Smoking Man in the X-files series--going to profit from the demise of civilization. anyway--I'm not too terribly worried about the birdflu. I'm more worried about driving in this snow we are getting right now.

[Kitsune]

Something to consider:

Each year, the flu comes around and everyone rushes around in an attempt to get a vaccine. I did the flu shot for two years and you end up feeling like crap for a couple days. Out of all my other years without the shot, I've only had the flu twice and I've elected to just let the fever climb and burn it off. You're miserable for a couple days, but I find it better to be extremely miserable for a couple days rather than drag it out to a full week by popping aspirin and such. I opt to bypass the shot because of the effects and I would just rather deal with the low odds of actually catching the illness.

Anyways, if they did develop a vaccine, would you take it? Flu shots have a certain rate of complication, some of them severe, and sometimes taking the shot is worse than actually catching the illness. Obviously, H5N1 is so nasty that it would be better to take the shot, but what if everyone takes it, a certain percentage of people die from it, and H5N1 never ends up posing a threat to humans? Should we delay the shot until we see the flu being passed from person-to-person, or is it possible that we'll not have enough warning to give it out, in time?

Frankly, I am not that impressed by flu shots. People die from the shots, too, and by time the pharmaceutical industry has ramped up to provide enough vaccine against the latest virus, the virus has mutated again. I've taken the shots a couple of times and gotten sick from them both times. I've avoided the shots and not gotten the flu. At this point I prefer to play the odds and avoid the shots.

BTW, my new nickname for my kitty after that feather incident is "Typhoid Tabby."

[Beestie]

Ebola while horrifically contagious is easy to contain since the incubation period is so short. Its those looooooooong incubation period diseases that are cause for concern.

I have to confess that I haven't really kept up with this thread except to note that H5N1 is pretty much going to spread itself everywhere. How "incurable" is it and how "fatal" is it. I have trouble comparing it to the 1918 epidemic since, back then, some - maybe even a lot - regarded epidemics in certain areas to be "nature's housecleaning." I'm not sure the conditions which allowed that to happen exist anymore.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I'm not sure the conditions which allowed that to happen exist anymore.

Depends on whether it's "us" or "them", that's dying.