Bird Flu

[laurab]

Good news!

Experts confirm no bird flu in Europe


Thursday Oct 13 05:22 AEST
Bird flu has not been detected in Romania, European Union veterinary experts have said, confirming that the highly contagious disease has not yet reached Europe.

"The disease situation amongst poultry and wild birds ... the available epidemiological data and the laboratory results at present do not confirm the presence of avian influenza," the European Commission said in a statement after a meeting of EU member state vets.

Preliminary tests last week on three ducks in Romania's Danube delta near the Black Sea proved positive and raised fears that the disease had entered Europe, but the EU vets' results made clear the virus was not present.

The commission has also announced it would extend until next April its ban on imports of poultry products and pet birds from Turkey, where avian influenza was discovered at the weekend at a farm near the Aegean and Marmara seas.

[chris]

Hi Laura,

thanks for that, it's nice to know as the virus has got to go through Europe before it can get here really... i think lol

DEFRA have actually setup a hotline for people to ring if they see any dead birds in groups etc, so they can be tested for the virus. it's in the daily mail somewhere

Chris:wink:

[Waxbillman]

great news then Laura thanks for that.

matthew

[chris]

Hi all,


due to how the media are blowing things out of proportion regarding bird flu, and the anti's doing what they can to ban pet shows using the bird flu, i have done a calculation to show your chances of dying of bird flu if you live in asia, bear in mind as we are outside the affected area it is even lower for us:

chance of catching bird flu in asia and dying from it= population of asia / no. of deaths x 100

=0.00000006%

i'd say our chances are pretty good:wink:

Chris

[Waxbillman]

i would agree with that Chris,

matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for sharing your calculation with us you nutter,:lol: but you haven't calculated the chances of us catching and dying of Bird Flu in the UK, but then again we can't be too sure of the UK's population these days can we?:?

Paul.:wink:

[chris]

hi paul,

i can do that one without a calculator:

0%, no virus here at the moment:wink: plus it's not this virus that we have to worry about anyway, it's if and when it mutates into a human influenza x avian influenza hybrid that it could possibly wreak havok and kill millions... possibly.

last time i checked our population it was 60 million, but it would seem it has now increased to 70 million. i find it worrying as the last time i checked was last year before i was enlightend this week, my guess is we have 10 million illegal immigrants over the last year.

pesronally i don['t think it will be birds that bring the mutate avian flu into the country when it happens, but rather it will be brought in on people (immigrants) and then given England is one of the most densley populated conrties in the world it won't take long to rip througfh the country. in the meantime i'm going to freeze myself in cryogenic stasus and wake up when it's past and there's only 10 people left in briton who knicked my idea:lol:

as long as they aren't chavs or immigrants then i'm sorted:grin:

on a serious note, i hope my immune system is up for a challenge as i have no intention of destroying/selling my birds no matter what happens

Chris:wink:

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

I'll say it again, nutter!:lol:

Paul.:grin:

[chris]

Hi all,

just found this out about the bird flu virus:

'The virus can be killed by heat - 56°C for three hours or 60°C for half an hour. Strong disinfectants such as fomalin and iodine based compounds will also kill it.'

this means, vanodine is a damn good investment to clean your aviary with as it is iodine based (along with a few of my favourite acids:twisted: ), meaning it should kill the bird flu virus on contact.

i still haven't found a figure for how many people a year get infected with human flu...

Chris:wink:

[laurab]

Hi Chris, take a look at the following link...very interesting site!

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/index.html (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs211/en/index.html)

[Waxbillman]

great i'm glad that summut as simple as that kills it, so basically if people in asian countries cleaned out their chicken shed with the stuff they can help prevent them getting the flu.

matthew

[chris]

great i'm glad that summut as simple as that kills it, so basically if people from Asian countries cleaned out their chicken shed with the stuff they can help prevent them getting the flu.

matthew

Hi matthew,

basically if they actually cleaned them we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place:neutral: vanodine will definately help, but the conditions i've seen of such chicken farms in asian countries are disgusting. basic hygene would have prevented any outbreaks in the first place

Chris

[chris]

Hi Laura,

thanks for the link:wink:

[Waxbillman]

i can believe that, so people should be worrying so much, if poultry are kept clean then they should have no problems.

matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Laura,

Thanks for the link, as Chris has mentioned, if education regarding basic hygiene in the Country or Countries of origin of Avain Influenza had been better we in the UK may not be threatened by this Virus right now.
The fact that some of these Third World Countries populations share their homes with Chickens and Pigs etc, doesn't help in the slightest.

Education and sanitation seem to be the key in prevention of these outbreaks which are costing various Countries Millions of Pounds and Dollars etc Worldwide!

So who is to blame, the Countries who have already suffered greatly from the Viruses which are now threatening the rest of the World, or the Countries that are now threatened by this Virus spreading in the future?

Exploitation of poorer Countries by richer Super Powers have brought this problem upon us, so tell me who is to blame, the US, the UK, or Asian and African Countries who are trying to pay of debts to the Super Powers?

My Political rant is over (for now:mad: ), but please tell me this, when will we rest easy knowing that we are not at risk from Alien Viruses due to our greed in gaining payments from loans that we as a Country have made many years ago?

Paul.

[chris]

http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2005/051021f.htm

the media will have a feild day with this, i can't say as i'm not expecting an import ban now

Chris:neutral:

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for posting the link, I know it essential that this Virus is contained and dealt with to prevent an outbreak, but I cannot help feeling that we are jumping the gun and culling many Birds that are not infected!!

Just by reading this link I see that many Birds are being put down without giving them a chance before it is confirmed they are carrying the Virus, how many Domestic Fowl have suffered the same fate without giving them a chance?

Am I being too soft, or do others share my view?

There must be a way that Birds that have been in contact with confirmed cases of Avian flu, can be housed until it is evident that they are either free of the Virus or carriers?

Paul.:mad:

[Waxbillman]

i agree with you Paul

matthew

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello Matthew,

I'm glad someone agrees with me!!

Paul.

[chris]

Hi Paul,

i agree also, if our government put as much time into researching a vaccine for the birds as they do culling them we could prevent any outbreak beforehand. apparently the birds were in a safe environment whereby the virus cannot escape anyway, so it is only a matter of testing the birds. ofcourse this is too expensive when a cheap cull will do the trick without the hassle:-x

Chris

[kenny]

hi all

its just typical,on the news tonight they are saying now that the parrot didnt have bird flu it was a load of finches that were imported along with the parrot ,they cocked up the test so if anyone brings bird flu into this country it will be the people who are doing the testing because they haven`t a clue

ken

[Waxbillman]

thats right Ken

its stupid, they weren't even finches they were mesia's which are softbills.

theres allot of things that don't seem right

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
dont know why they even bothered with the programme we aint any the wiser for seeing it apart from all the women in goole have moustaches
ken

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi all,

Chris,

I completely agree with your comments, the prevention of the Virus is far from saving Birds lives, but more to do with saving the Government in paying Poultry farmers compensation for their losses if Bird Flu was to become a problem in this Country.
But I will raise another question, why isn't the same compensation open to Bird Dealers and breeders?

Kenny,

As Matthew stated the Birds responsible for the case of Bird Flu in the UK were in fact 102 Silver Eared Mesias, these Birds left Tawain with 65 Mynahs and 20 Black Throated Laughing Thrushes, when they entered the UK they were housed with 36 Black Headed Caiques, 19 Blue Headed Pionus, 5 Red Shouldered Macaws,
8 Yellow Headed Amazons, 64 Orange Winged Amazons, 12 Blue and Gold Macaws and 5 Green Winged Macaws.

Although the housing of two shipments of Birds from two seperate Continents was perfectly legal, I believe this cock up should be rectified to avoid cross contamination in the future.:mad:

Many Birds involved in this avoidable cock up would still be alive if our own Governments had put stricter controls into place many years ago.

The Mesias were found to be the only Species carrying the Virus, so the other Asian Bird Species, Mynahs and Laughing Thrushes were culled needlessly, as were the remaining South American Parrotlike Birds.

The contaminated tissue of the Mesia was pooled with the tissue sample from the Pionus for analysis, in my view this was wrong, analysis should have been seperate!
The shipment of Birds from Suriname was later found to be clear from contamination of Bird Flu, this would have been discovered sooner if the tissue samples hadn't been pooled in the first place!:mad:

There is now talk of the end of privately owned Quarantine Premises in the UK, but I don't believe the blame lies with the holders of licensed Quaratine Premises, but with the agency that is suppossed to regulate these premises, DEFRA.

The contamination of seperate shipments apart, I do believe that Qurantine measures in the UK has played a huge role in the prevention in allowing this Virus to enter the UK under mainstream conditions.
This just goes to show that the UK Quarantine procedure is effective in preventing this Virus from entering the UK generaly.

Paul.