Reply #60: bird droppings are chock-full of H5N1.

[gkhouston]

Those "healthy" birds may be infected but not yet symptomatic. Even if they're actually healthy, they could be scattering poop from infected/dead birds. No, it's not just a theoretical risk. A lot of the victims in Asia worked with poultry and at least one was a woman thought to have been infected after sweeping a barnyard; inhaling the dust from dried droppings while sweeping apparently got enough virus in her lungs to cause infection.