Is Bird Flu Killing All Those Whales?

Originally posted by zenlover28
I'm confused Sofi; the article states that the bodies were badly decomposed. You are saying that it talks about "blobs" and deteriorated connective tissue. From the way I read it their entire bodies were badly decomposed. And no it isn't a no brainer.

In the recent whale deaths in Mexico, 2 of the bodies were badly decomposed and could not be identified except as whales - all the others were identifiable.

In addition, there have been numerous instances of whale deaths over the past several years, unrelated to beachings. Most of the whale "blob" reports described malformed connective tissue - and abnormal myofibroblasts.

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I read this month's Popular Science and was shocked by a new sonar device that was developed by the military to target divers approaching ships in port. The device detects approaching bodies and sends out a sonic fence that can make a human ill.

This bothers me since it can do even more damage than other sonic sources I previously discussed.

Pressure waves like the ones described earlier can easily tear membranes and perhaps thicker skin as well.

I know a lot of marine noise levels have been taken that are above 100dB at 115 tissue damage can occur. I wouldn't be surprised if some sound source was behind this.

Originally posted by MrPringles
just because H5N1 hits the media because it has mutated into a type that can infect humans doesn't mean it's the reason for every single death on the earth.

I think it was always able to infect humans. Animals to Humans. It has not yet mutated in such a way that in can be spread Human to Human (as far as I know). Do you know differently?

Sofi,

Informative post, thanks. I didn't realize H5N1 was infecting whales too Is it spreading Whale to Whale or just Bird to Whale?

Originally posted by Beachcoma
Whales aren't fish. But that brings a question to mind -- can the disease spread to fish as well?

Somehow, I missed this post. My first thought was no, but then I found this:

H5N1 9A

This is a virus from Shantou (northern Guangdong province) in November 2004. It is a contagious and does not differ from H5N1 markedly. But the feces of the infected poultry is very unusual. The feces of chickens, ducks and pigs are emptied into fish ponds in some parts of China, and this virus severely attacks fish with particular virulence. The fish bones turn soft, but the reason is not known and needs to be tested in laboratories.

Source.

I find that startling.

[edit on 25-3-2006 by loam]

Sorry - meant to post this here ages ago...


"A German scientist said Tuesday the entry of faeces from infected poultry into the food chain via fish was a likely cause of the global spread of bird flu - and not migrating wild birds."