Bird flu found at German poultry farm

Source: AP

BERLIN (AP) -- Tests have found that birds at a poultry farm in southern Germany died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, and some 160,000 birds were being slaughtered as a precaution, authorities said.

The virus was detected in ducklings at the farm near Erlangen, in northern Bavaria. A federal lab confirmed that the birds died of the "highly pathogenic" H5N1 variant, the state consumer protection ministry said Saturday.

More than 400 birds had died over a short period of time at the farm, ministry spokeswoman Sandra Brandt said. Authorities planned to start Saturday evening with the slaughter of the 160,000 birds at the farm.

Several cases of the virus have surfaced among wild birds in Germany this year. Last month, it was detected in a domestic goose in the east of the country.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GERMANY_BIRD_FLU?SITE=TNMEM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

animals slaughtered and then burned when so many are hungry. I know it is safer to do this but still...
Three human cases in Bali this week too and they are culling there also.

:hide:

Thank you for paying for these over sized petri dishes via your dietary preference.

Years ago (decades ago), people ate meat. We didn't have the factory farms and the cows fed to cows (cannibalism) that we do now. Still, people ate meat.

I think the factory farming came before the increased consumption of meat. As usual, demand was CREATED by the suppliers.

How was it in the past that we managed to eat meat without creating factory farms instead of pasture, etc?

Industrialization brought with it coerced consumption, marketing. The factory wanted to produce, and therefore sell, to capacity -- whether or not demand existed. The factories created demand by marketing and creating a perceived need for the product. I think the same has happened with meat.