British officials announce that 53 of 101 Asian finches from a Taiwanese consignment in quarantine died of the deadly avian flu virus, H5N1. While the
finches, southeast Asian mesias, tested positive H5N1, it was unclear whether the finches received the infection from last month's well publicized
death of a blue headed parrot from Surinam, South America, housed in the same facility. According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, tissue samples were pooled, making it impossible to determine whether the virus came from the parrot or the mesia.
www.breitbart.com
Fifty-three finches from Taiwan have died at a British quarantine centre because of an outbreak of the most deadly strain of avian flu, the
government said.
The birds, southeast Asian mesias, also described as finches, died last month of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 strain, the Department for
the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said Tuesday.
"Only the mesias were infected with H5N1 and 53 out of 101 birds died," it said.
The department also said it was not possible to know if a parrot from Surinam had in fact died from the same virus, as the tissues of the two species
were mixed during testing.
"Infection with H5N1 was transmitted between the mesias, but there is no evidence of transmission to other species in the facility," it said.
"The original identification of HPAI H5N1 on October 21 was made from a pool of tissues derived from a Pionus parrot (Surinam) and a mesia
(Taiwan)," the department said.
"It has not been possible to say whether the virus isolated came from the parrot tissue or the mesia tissue or both. However, in the light of the
other evidence the balance of probabilities is that the source was the mesia sample."
Please visit the link provided for the complete story.
I find it deeply disturbing that tissue samples would be pooled. Given the importance of understanding the precise details concerning any
transmission, why would this have made sense? Moreover, I also find it disturbing that news of these deaths were not released sooner. Apparently, the
finches started dying at the same time that news of the parrot's death hit the wires.
What is going on over there???
Related News Links:
www.forbes.com
www.novinite.com
Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
SCI/TECH: Bird Flu Reaches UK, Bird Dies In Quarantine
[edit on 15-11-2005 by loam]
[edit on 20-11-2005 by asala]
UPDATE! 
