Freezing doesn't kill anything, only stops the
growth until it is thawed. You can get cholera from ice cubes frozen with
contaminated water.
There tends to be a knee jerk reaction to
things. From what I have read, those humans who contacted bird flu had
extra close contact with the birds, ie lots of direct time as well as 'playing'
with the bird, as in the case of the children.
Guess this is going to raise the cost of all
chicken products? Heck, there is a burp in any place of the oil industry
and the cost per gallon of gas goes up fifteen cents!!!!! There are times
that instant info seems to be overreacted to.
Hopefully the American experience will be better than the
Egyptian but I'm not sure I'd want to count on it knowing how the
press really loves winding the public up. At BF arrival plus a week
here, it's really hard to find fresh chicken in the grocery stores.
You can find frozen chicken (and why would this be ok and not fresh?
Probably because the company in question runs automated
slaughterhouses and packing plants so there is less worry about
human contact but also less humans to know if something is wrong
with a bird. Does freezing kill a virus...somehow I doubt
it.)
The police went house to house in the city demanding that all
birds be destroyed. Not all chickens or ducks, all birds. If you
owned a pet bird and it lived outside, it was toast. I know one
woman who lost a lot of very loved pet birds. They've done that to a
certain extent here in the farming area and someone came to my home
because he'd heard that I own birds while I was out. My housekeeper,
standing in a pack of 10 dogs including a Dalmation, a Great Dane
and a shepherd mix, informed him that since Madame wasn't home she
couldn't let him in. A friend arranged that he will not be
returning. I have 6 parrots ranging in age from 12 to 20 years old
who live in an aviary with 3 chickens. The chickens are ultimately
disposable, but the parrots are not. None of them are in any danger
because there is no traffic with any other birds than house sparrows
and to the best of my knowledge they don't carry BF.
Many of
the farmers have slaughtered their poultry and eaten them rather
than have the army or police confiscate them...and eat them. How
these families will live without the protein from the eggs and
poultry, I don't know. Everyone here talks about when the flu "goes
away" but I haven't seen anything to indicate that it will go
away. At some point they will want more poultry.
There
were reports that dead chickens had been dumped into the Nile early
on and people panicked, stocking up on bottled water and food. The
virus doesn't survive in water so there was no danger to the
drinking water other than the usual one we have in the cities where
the pipes are all old and cracked and there is cross contamination
from sewage and drinking water, so you don't want to drink it
anyway. It's chlorinated up the wazoo as well to overcome the
contamination issues, so it tastes nasty.
Between bureaucracy and
idiocy and journalists, you're in for a rocky ride. Just watch
people netting off barns or shooting the dangerous swallows
or.....the mind simply boggles at the nonsense that happens when The
Deadly Bird Flu arrives in your neighbourhood. But other than
that I haven't noticed any changes. No dead birds, my horses are
fine and I ride all over as usual without problems.
Maryanne in
Bird Flu Land
On Mar 11, 2006, at 2:16 PM, Marv Walker
wrote:
> I realize that the bird flu post was a joke but as
one > who has seen some things in my time, I wonder... > >
When the bird flu gets here, and it will, how will it > affect your life
and activities? What will it do to > the sport and the keeping of
animals or for that matter > life in general? > > We already
have the NAIS knee jerk reaction to BF and > terrorism to contend
with. Am I the only one concerned > about widespread stupidity and
how it will affect me? > > Marv "Excuse me while I go bleach down
the yard." Walker > Horse Info & Training Videos ~ http://MarvWalker.com > > >
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