| Ferrets and the bird flu - CLICK HERE for the Pet Manual Forum Home Page |
| chasw |
Just a comment about the spreading influenza epidemic among birds. A
significant portion of the world's birds will die from this pandemic within
the next year or so, although it most likely will not spread to humans in
any big way. The net result is most domesticated chickens, turkeys, ducks
and geese will die or be killed to halt the spread among commerical bird
flocks. People will quit eating chicken, even though it might be cooked to
perfect safety. Apparently, thorough cooking at high heat kills the virus,
but how often do you take a bite out of a drumstick and find some
semi-cooked meat inside. Good time to sell Tyson stock short and buy some
cattle futures to make a bundle, sort of like Hillary did.
The point of all this is, some people feed their ferrets raw chicken meat.
I suggest they start weaning their little ones from it asap and definitely
quit once the epidemic hits wild birds within 500 miles of where you live.
Some chicken-eating ferrets in eastern Europe are already in danger, IMO.
Eating raw chicken has been implicated in many human deaths, plus a large
number of tigers recently died of the bird flu in a zoo in India after
eating raw chickens. I can imagine they were getting culls from local
chicken farms, a direct line to infected birds. - CW
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| lin |
"chasw" <chasw88@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:7dKdnbnKTv3bDuvenZ2dnUVZ_tmdnZ2d@comcast.com...
> Just a comment about the spreading influenza epidemic among birds. A
> significant portion of the world's birds will die from this pandemic
> within the next year or so, although it most likely will not spread to
> humans in any big way.
I dispute *that* statement. There have already been over 60 human deaths
*this yr alone*. While it's too early to tell if it'll reach the "pandemic"
proportions they predict it could, I don't think it's worth discounting.
Hell, we can't even keep up w/ the production of flu vaccines we already
have, & are now virtually out of them. (My husband is a pharmacist, & he
gives flu shots at his pharmacy. They've already had to *discontine* their
flu shot service for this yr, as Chrion simply doesn't have any more to send
out right now, to *anyone*.)
>The net result is most domesticated chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese will
>die or be killed to halt the spread among commerical bird flocks.
Which they've already been doing in Vietnam, etc, for the past couple yrs,
at least.
>People will quit eating chicken, even though it might be cooked to perfect
>safety. Apparently, thorough cooking at high heat kills the virus, but how
>often do you take a bite out of a drumstick and find some semi-cooked meat
>inside. Good time to sell Tyson stock short and buy some cattle futures to
>make a bundle, sort of like Hillary did.
>
> The point of all this is, some people feed their ferrets raw chicken meat.
> I suggest they start weaning their little ones from it asap and definitely
> quit once the epidemic hits wild birds within 500 miles of where you live.
If you wait until it's only 500 mi from where you live, it could already be
too late.
> Some chicken-eating ferrets in eastern Europe are already in danger, IMO.
> Eating raw chicken has been implicated in many human deaths,
There have been non-fatal cases reported amongst dr's in Vietnam, who have
had absolutely no contact w/ chickens, only w/ infected patients. As well as
non-fatal cases amongst chicken farmers who have *slaughtered* infected
chickens.
>plus a large
> number of tigers recently died of the bird flu in a zoo in India after
> eating raw chickens. I can imagine they were getting culls from local
> chicken farms, a direct line to infected birds. - CW
If an outbreak of bird flu were to occur in humans on US soil, it would be
at least *6 mos* before we could do a damn thing about it. We have no
vaccines in current mass production, we don't have enough of a supply of
surgical face masks, syringes, etc, to go around, & no way to get enough of
them, etc.
Best thing to do is to have about 3 wks worth of food, water, etc for your
family & pets, & if it hits, be prepared to not leave your house for that
length of time. Not meaning to sound like an alarmist here, but if this does
hit the US (& w/ the amount of world travel that takes place, it's not that
outlandish to think it could), we're gonna find out exactly how UNprepared
we are.
--
Lin, Ariel, Oberon, Max, & Puck
To email me back, take out everything from "K" to "2"
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