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McCamy Taylor

(19,240 posts) Fri Apr 24, 2015, 02:16 PM Apr 2015

There is Bird Flu in Wild US Birds

Read the fine print in this article about bird flu in poultry in Minnesota

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/23/us-health-birdflu-minnesota-idUSKBN0NE2JP20150423

Officials have said they believe wild birds are spreading the virus but they do not know how it is entering barns.

Why does this matter? Wild birds travel. They travel all across the country. The meet other birds. They pass on their diseases to other birds. Meaning that the birds in your area may have or may soon have bird flu, too.

Here's the CDC Avian Flu page:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/

Avian influenza A viruses have been isolated from more than 100 different species of wild birds. Most of these viruses have been LPAI viruses. The majority of the wild birds from which these viruses have been recovered represent gulls, terns and shorebirds or waterfowl such as ducks, geese and swans. These wild birds are often viewed as reservoirs (hosts) for avian influenza A viruses.

What does this mean for you? If you go duck hunting, be very, very careful in handling that bird. Be careful when you feed those sea gulls, too. And keep your fingers crossed that a bird flu strain does not mutate so that it can be passed from human to human, the way that 2009's swine flu did.

3 replies

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There is Bird Flu in Wild US Birds (Original Post) McCamy Taylor Apr 2015 OP

most have been water birds? I guess the juicie stench from a million hen 'farm' flows to the sea Sunlei Apr 2015 #1

Sounds like bad news for those of us who have companion birds inside and the feed wild birds. In_The_Wind Apr 2015 #2

It's really not that big a deal except in agriculture. Daemonaquila Apr 2015 #3

Sunlei

(22,651 posts)

1. most have been water birds? I guess the juicie stench from a million hen 'farm' flows to the sea

Reply to McCamy Taylor (Original post)

Fri Apr 24, 2015, 02:22 PM

Apr 2015

at least they said, humans can eat the eggs and meat of sick & dead chickens, just cook it

In_The_Wind

(72,300 posts)

2. Sounds like bad news for those of us who have companion birds inside and the feed wild birds.

Reply to McCamy Taylor (Original post)

Fri Apr 24, 2015, 02:25 PM

Apr 2015

Daemonaquila

(1,712 posts)

3. It's really not that big a deal except in agriculture.

Reply to McCamy Taylor (Original post)

Fri Apr 24, 2015, 02:40 PM

Apr 2015

There's no reason to expect that it will cross to humans. There's no reason to expect that it will affect people's pets. There's no reason to be "very, very careful" except if you're working with poultry flocks, doing wild bird rehabilitation, or something in that vein where YOU could get birds infected by your own carelessness. Science, please!

The only group that's going to be in trouble is farmed birds. If we didn't keep them in insanely close conditions with poor hygiene and high stress, it wouldn't even be that big a deal in that context. But of course, we do, so big ag is going to lose a lot of birds. Poultry and egg prices will rise for a while. We'll cope.

Wild birds will suffer, but not to anywhere near the extent of the domestic flocks. It's unfortunate, but it's not going to result in mass die-offs like at the poultry facilities where the bug has run rampant.

There's no reason to react to this like it's the bogeyman.

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