Avian Influenza

[Bramble Briar86]

Here's a great website that gives excellentlinks to other sites and great information on the flu and everythingsurrounding it, for those interested.

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/

Ellie

 

[Spring]

Great site! Has lots of usefull information!

The Avian flu scares me a bit.. Another reason why we should spend morethought about how animals are kept. If it happends it happends!

 

[Nadezhda]

I used to be able to walk up the road to thechicken farm and buy eggs straight from the barn instead of having togo downtown and buy them at the grocery store with the added storefees. Since Bird Flu first popped up, they blocked off thefarm to eceryone who doesn't work there. It sucks!We still have to deal with the smell of the chicken fertilizer trucksdriving by, and we don't get cheap eggs to compensate! Bah!

 

[proxima centauri]

Here's my take on the subject:

http://www.martinbreton.com/2006/03/13/relativity-relativite/

 

[Bramble Briar86]

proxima centauri wrote:

Here's my take on the subject:

http://www.martinbreton.com/2006/03/13/relativity-relativite/

Awesome link. I'm just afriad of it mutating and being transmitableperson to person:?. That was an coolway to look at the stats.

Ellie

 

[proxima centauri]

I just hate how the medias are doing a scare campaign right now. Let's cross the bridge when we get to the river.

Don't panic. Yet.

 

[Greta]

I believe the topic of Avian Influenza has beengreatly blown out of proportion by the media. They need a dramaticstory, so why not dramatize it a bit? True, AI could mutate into ahuman-to-human transmissible form and become a world pandemic much likethe Spanish Influenze pandemic of 1916-18. The H5N1 virus is verysimilar in structure to that of the virus responsible for causing thespanish influenza, however the spanish flu occurred toward the end ofWorld War I when the troops were aready fatigued, mal-nourished, andliving in cramped conditions when the virus came along and thereforesuccumbed to it more easily than a healthy individual would have. thedeath rate forn the spanish influenza was boosted significantly bythis. If so many troops had not died from the virus, it may not haveeve been given the classification of "pandemic".


There. I'm done now! sorry for being so long-winded and technical!
It's just that I did a whole essay on that subject awhile back (whichwas presented to scientists and researchers, so it HAD to belong-winded and technical! )

 

[Greta]

Here's a link to a thread about Avian Influenza On another forum I frequent (much like here, but for chickens)


http://www.the-coop.org/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=001447

 

[Bramble Briar86]

Greta-you have a PM

Ellie

 

[m.e.]

I am writing a biology paper on this verysubject. It's a semester's worth of research, writing, re-writing, peerreviews, and scanning hundreds of pages of scientific reports...:yawn

Honestly, I find itto be quite fascinating, but having justspent the past week completely immersed in information on avianinfluenza, it does get to be quite tiring to hear about it all the time.

That said, I do believe that to dismiss this virus as "media hype"would be a grave mistake. It's deadly, it's dangerous, and unlessthings change dramatically, the mutation of a virulent strain is only amatter of time. Vaccines are not the answer. Preparedness is.

 

[proxima centauri]

m.e. time will tell.

Medias are getting really good at scaring people.

 

[m.e.]

Believe me, I know. I avoid mass media at all costs :baghead

The truly scary information I am getting comes from scientific reportsand studies, and for the most part I would saythatresearchers, biologists, and the like,aren'tout to unnecessarily frighten people. If they are, they're in the wrongline of work, because very few people ('cept us science geeks) take thetime to pore over their reports in scientific journals.

Not exactly light reading, kwim?:lol:

 

[proxima centauri]

The problem here is that people are trying topredict what will happen, based on facts and past experiences, but it'salmost impossible to do.

 

[m.e.]

True, it's simply probability. There's no reasonto think that it won't happen, but no one can say for surewhen it will happen. It could be next week, next month, nextyear, five years down the road, etc. We can make educated guesses(though one up-and-coming field is the study of current strains to findtrends in mutation), but there really is no accurate way to determinewhen a flu pandemic will strike.

 

[proxima centauri]

And I bet you anything we won't hear much about it throughout the summer

 

[Krissa]

Im a little worried about it because I have twopet birds and I would hate to bring it home to my babies! I spend a lotof time outside soI set up a bin to put my shoes in when Iget home; I don't wanttrack possible contamination around andbecause my Teil likes to eat shoelaces. If it hits Ohio bad then I'llmake sure I change my clothes before handling my bird, but I'm notworried about catching it myself.

 

[proxima centauri]

Now, THAT is a legitimate concern.

 

[Just Jack]

Before the whole issues with posts missing happened I had posted in here.

I was curious as to what kind of information you've collectedEmily. As you said preparedness is the way, but how shouldone prepare?

 

[Bramble Briar86]

Just Jack wrote:

I was curious as to what kind of information you've collectedEmily. As you said preparedness is the way, but how shouldone prepare?

Ah ha! I am wondering as well.

...................

Some people are already taking precautions to it and bringing entireflocks indoors and reducing flock size. When it gets into the US i'msure that my only option is to bring everyone inside and to monitor andisolate any sick birds. I"m guessing that any and all poultry showswill be put on hold...how blissfully disgruntling:?...

Ellie

 

[m.e.]

As I'm running out the door to take my Chem exam...:run:

This reminds me that I need to keep working on my Biology paper, whichcovers avian influenza. Later, when I have all my resources in front ofme, I'll post more about preparedness.