Hong Kong reports bird flu outbreak

[BeatleBoot]

Source: MSNBC

HONG KONG - Three dead chickens tested positive for bird flu in Hong Kong, prompting the city to suspend poultry imports for 21 days and begin slaughtering 80,000 birds, an official said Tuesday.

"We feel that Hong Kong is facing a new alert for bird flu," said York Chow, secretary for food and health.

Chow said the chickens, found Monday at a farm with 60,000 birds, had the H5 virus and further tests were being done to see if they had the deadly H5N1 strain.

The farm and neighboring poultry operations were declared part of an infected zone, and about 80,000 birds in the area would be killed to prevent the spread of the disease, Chow said.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28139486/

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Great - on the cusp of a new Great Depression and now a new Hong Kong Flu...

(Food and Health Secretary) York Chow. Is that something one feeds their Yorkshire Terrier?:rofl:

[nomorenomore08]

4. You'd really feed your dog something from Hong Kong, after a scare like this?

You bad person, you! :P

[Rhiannon12866]

8. ROFL! Very clever! But I'd suggest reading the ingredients before feeding it to this little one...

:loveya:

[eShirl]

2. I'll worry when it starts spreading easily human-to-human

I may not have long to wait

[Mojorabbit]

3. Indonesia admitted yesterday

to two more deaths from the H5N1 virus but there have been a whole lot more people hospitalized as suspect cases that drop out of their news. I am watching them like a hawk.

[Baby Snooks]

5. All it takes is a little mutation...

The avian viruses mutate into a virus that we are susceptible to but so far this one doesn't seem to like us. Let's hope it stays that way.

The last avian flu was the one that struck almost a century ago. I think it was called the Spanish flu. It killed millions. It would probably kill tens of millions today because of airplanes. One person on one plane could expose 150 people easily and each of those might be headed to 150 different destinations. And so within a 24 hour period the flu could potentially be spread throughout the world.

The World Health Organization has watched this for two years now - the problem is the individual countries where it might become a problem first don't always report the cases fearing panic.

Everyone should watch it carefully. Although there isn't much you can do if it becomes pandemic except lock yourself in your home and not allow anyone in. Which the government might order. Some expect communities where it breaks out will be quarantined. That's how deadly avian flus are.

[Doctor Cynic]

6. We were very close to a pandemic in 2003, with SARS.

[KakistocracyHater]

7. the Spanish Flu 2%

or so, I was disgusted over the panic. I'd just seen the Black Death History channel on Marseilles, France. It was in the 1700s I think, & over 1000 people died a day, in Marseille alone, so many that they couldn't bury them fast enough, a very terrible time & so much worse than the 300 worldwide. As the world becomes more crowded, it's the poor who will get ill first, then it will spread. x-TB, mrsa, hiv....they're evolving & more will come

[Grinchie]

9. Overlooking the significance of a "Farm with 60,000 birds" is typical misdirection.

Seems like the status quo of people only concerned obout themselves.

Can you even imagine what 60,000 chickens in one spot would look like? How about the smell?

Nobody even sttempts to put this kind of unhealthy environment into perspective, and their eyes gloss over when it comes to thinking about how immoral, toxic and unhealthy Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) are. Nobody considers this when they eat chicken McNuggets, or consume whatever that flesh is that they serve at KFC.

The truth of the matter is that these CAFO's survive by force feeding tons of antibiotics to these overcrowded flocks in order to keep them alive long enough for slaughter.

It's up to YOU to decide to stop buying this crap food and demand food raised in a more humane and less crowded manner.

The Avian flu is just a warning sign that our food production system is so unsustainable that it is now breeding new and exotic strains of organisms daily.

Add to that the untested move to producing animal feedstock from GMO grain crops, and feeding chickenshit back to farmed Fish and you have a noxious recipe

Watch as they try to pin the blame of this outbreak on "Wild Birds" when in reality all outbreaks usually occur in areas with CAFO's nearby.

We need to stop this before it goes ahead and stops us.

[Karenina]

10. BINGO!