People in America seem to be getting worried. But has a bird ever flown through Siberia and Alaska or over the Atlantic Ocean? I don't want to sound mean, but how will it get to America? What do they (or you) expect will happen?

Originally posted by mashup
People in America seem to be getting worried. But has a bird ever flown through Siberia and Alaska or over the Atlantic Ocean? I don't want to sound mean, but how will it get to America? What do they (or you) expect will happen?

America buys poultry from all over the world. When you order duck in a Oriential resturant, you can bet that duck is an Oriential duck. Bird flu may be spread by wild birds but the main concern is from commercially raised birds.
Bird flu will eventually spread globally and kill millions of people in the 3rd world.
The question is: will the USA have an anecdote in time?
If Katrina is an example of American preparedness...


[edit on 20-10-2005 by whaaa]

Here's the thing, guys.

Bird flu is kinda like following an invisible tank rolling through town. When you find crushed cars, you can bet that the tank isn't THERE but has already moved on. You can't see where it currently is, just where it has been and made it's effect known.

So when you get confirmations that it's on the edge of europe, that probably means that it already is inside of europe.

They had a story on this very thing on the evening news today (ABC)

Birds do migrate from siberia to alaska down thru California. They have people trapping and testing them like crazy right now to try and figure out just what virus' they are carrying. They swab the mouth and test the feces to determine this. The biggest concern is a wild bird somehow infecting the farm birds.

Migratory birds have a flyway which will take them from infected areas to uninfected areas as the season changes.

Love and light,

Wupy

Well thing is, it doesn't matter if any birds find their way over to you. When/if the virus mutates it will come to you anyway even if your were bird free, with todays communications. Imagine if it has a incubation period of 3 months before any signs.. The whole world will be infected and dying before anyone really realised it.

I'm worried.

The chances of peopel catching it from birds in America are low, but if/when it mutates and is able to pass between human to human, the whole world will be at risk.

The ONLY risk at the moment is from direct contact with infected birds, just keep away from migrating flocks or that huge pile of dead birds in the street next to you house.

Thanks for the info guys and gals. It was on my mind for ages.

Another thing which is puzzling me, is the expected number of dead. At first they were saying 500 million. Then it was a few million, a few hundred thousand and now 50,000 (in Britain). I know it's still quite a bit, but surely a pandemic is a lot more?

Originally posted by whaaa
America buys poultry from all over the world. When you order duck in a Oriential resturant, you can bet that duck is an Oriential duck.

That isn't actually the case -- when DH was living in Japan for a few years some years back he had a duck dinner out and was talking to the waitstaff and asked where the duck was from. They checked and came back with the actual package -- the duck was from a duck farm in our local area here on Long Island. A farm that DH knew quite well in fact

Isn't it just the sauce and way of cooking oriental? I suppose it would cost quite a bit to export food all that way. Just like Buffalo chicken wings. They aren't actually all from Buffalo are they? (As in the town, not the animal).