Category Archives: pandemic

Bird flu: No chickening out, 5,000 feast on curry – Hindustan Times

Health or Profit? Profit hunger wins over health need!

More than 5,000 people queued up to feast on free chicken curry and boiled eggs at the Sector-21 market on Wednesday, after the Chandigarh Meat Market Welfare Association distributed these ‘delicacies’, to spread the word that it was safe to consume non-vegetarian dishes in this season of Christmas and New Year festivities.

By the end of the day, over 300-kg cooked chicken and 10,000 eggs had been consumed.

Atul Sonkar, president of the association, said, “The winter is peak business season for us. This unnecessary scare of bird flu has hit sales and people are scared to buy chicken and eggs. By organising this meat fair (mela), we want to send out a message that people can continue to consume these items.”

via Bird flu: No chickening out, 5,000 feast on curry – Hindustan Times.

The killing of earth begins in India: Chandigarh avian flu: Authorities begin to cull birds | Read Health News & Articles at TheHealthSite.com

No cases of lethal bird flu from wild birds to human have ever been recorded – only from those raising birds for profit. And so the killing of wild birds as “something to do” to “protect profits” not people has begun. Avian influenza is a product of intense human cultivation of poultry and the disease is sometimes passed on to wild birds. But by killing wild birds, government can pretend to be protecting humans but if industrial poultry industry is not changed, the new pandemic will still get us while the environment is damaged in ways that may harm us even more. May God have mercy on us, because, we certainly have none for ourselves!

Chandigarh, Dec 18: Authorities in Chandigarh Thursday evening started culling of all birds in and around the city’s famous Sukhna lake after a dead goose was confirmed with the H5N1 (avian influenza or bird flu) virus. ‘On communication received from the central government, culling of all birds in the vicinity of Sukhna lake — ducks and geese, live or dead — will be done and buried as per the action plan and bio-security measure set up by the WHO,’ said a spokesman of the Chandigarh administration. ‘The operation started at 4 p.m. with the help of all the concerned departments, primarily animal husbandry, wildlife and Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, director health services and engineering department. The operation will go on till midnight and no bird will be left unburied,’ the spokesman said. The area around the lake was cordoned off by police and the forest department.

‘At this stage, public is advised not to panic and cooperate with the administration. The administration has taken all possible steps to ensure the containment of virus and will continue to monitor the situation closely. The lake and its vicinity “shall remain out of bounds for general public till further orders’, he said. ‘At present, there is no assessment regarding any outbreak of bird flu in Chandigarh. The situation is, however, being very closely monitored,’ he said

via Chandigarh avian flu: Authorities begin to cull birds | Read Health News & Articles at TheHealthSite.com.

http://www.570news.com/2014/12/15/table-egg-layer-barn-in-langley-b-c-becomes-10th-farm-infected-with-avian-flu/

Workers may well be transmitting from place to place without realizing – the need to use procedures as if dealing with ebola.

http://www.570news.com/2014/12/15/table-egg-layer-barn-in-langley-b-c-becomes-10th-farm-infected-with-avian-flu/.

Avian Flu Diary: An Avian Flu Assessment From The Chinese Academy of Sciences

Although the Chinese press can often be faulted for selective reporting, since the emergence of the H7N9 virus two years ago we’ve seen some refreshingly straightforward talk coming out of China’s scientific community.

via Avian Flu Diary: An Avian Flu Assessment From The Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Bird flu task force warns of too much focus on wild birds

It pointed out that highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) was typically spread via contaminated poultry, but that wild birds may also play a role.

The Task Force suggested that the current H5N8 outbreak may have originated in poultry, before spilling into the wild bird population and then back into poultry, which was a pattern also seen with the H5N1 HPAI virus.

While investigations into the source of the current outbreak, which has been seen in South Korea earlier this year, before appearing in Europe last month, there is speculation that it has spread from eastern Asia, via wild birds.

“Firstly, it should be noted that direct migration by wild birds from eastern Asia to western Europe would be highly unusual. Flyways are characteristically ‘north–south’ (with some areas of ‘overlap’ of contiguous flyways at higher latitudes), and waterbirds breeding in north-east Asia tend to migrate southwards into east and south-east Asia, and not into Europe,” said the statement.

It added that the movement of the virus from eastern Asia to western Europe via the wild bird population would be “extraordinary” given the short time frame and the absence of extreme weather conditions during this period.

via Bird flu task force warns of too much focus on wild birds.

Two Sierra Leone Ebola doctors die in one day – Al Arabiya News

Two doctors have died on the same day after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone, the government said on Saturday, bringing to nine the number of medics killed by the virus.

They are among hundreds of healthcare workers to die treating patients infected in the deadly outbreak, which appears to be stabilizing in Guinea and Liberia but is still spreading at an alarming rate in Sierra Leone.

via Two Sierra Leone Ebola doctors die in one day – Al Arabiya News.

Avian influenza case confirmed in Guangdong, China | Vaccine News Daily

A 31-year-old woman from Dongguan in the Guangdong Province of China was diagnosed with avian influenza A (H7N9), Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health (DH) announced on Friday.

The patient is currently in critical condition at a Guangzhou hospital.

via Avian influenza case confirmed in Guangdong, China | Vaccine News Daily.

Poultry Industry Urges Exemption for Breeders from Bird Flu Bans – The Poultry Site

{Crazy! This is probably one of the chief means of spreading disease – unintentionally!}

Recent findings of highly pathogenic H5N8 influenza in poultry flocks in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK have caused several governments around the world to suspend trade of poultry with the three countries, including hatching eggs and day-old chicks.

via Poultry Industry Urges Exemption for Breeders from Bird Flu Bans – The Poultry Site.