- Bird Flu 'Experts'(?) Taking Aim At Roaming Ducks
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- From Patricia Doyle, PhD
- dr_p_doyle@hotmail.com
- 2-24-5
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- Hello, Jeff - Whenever we consider killing millions of
a species we must bear in mind that each species of animal, insect, plant
etc has its place in nature and removing a species or a large number of
that species sets the stage for disaster.
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- The experts tried to curb Chronic Wasting Disease in
a specified sector in Wisconsin. That action did not work, CWD spread
outside of the perimeter. India soon learned that the die offs of vulture
populations caused an increase in rabies and other diseases. Without the
vultrues, carcasses of dead animals littered towns and villages and wild
dogs gatered feasting on the carcasses. Rabies increased dramatically
as well as vectored diseases like Japanese Encephalitis.
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- Removing large numbers of species will upset the fragile
balance of nature, and, in my opinion, will not curb Avian Influenza.
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- Patricia Doyle
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- Bird Flu Experts Take Aim at Roaming Ducks
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- By Darren Schuettler
- 2-24-5
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- HO CHI MINH CITY (Reuters)
- In the fight against Asia's bird flu, experts are zeroing in on ducks
and the role they play in the spread of the deadly disease.
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- U.N. officials at a bird flu conference in Vietnam on
Wednesday said the virus that has killed 46 people in Asia may never be
eliminated partly because ducks are silent carriers and open-air farms
allow them to spread the disease.
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- "The public health implications of this are very
serious," Shigeru Omi, the head of the World Health Organization in
Asia, told the conference in Ho Chi Minh City.
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- "How can people avoid exposure to the virus when
they don't know which ducks are infected and which ones are not?"
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- Animal health experts say ducks can carry the virus without
showing any sign of illness, making them a reservoir for avian influenza
that may be impossible to eradicate.
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- Compounding the problem are age-old methods of farming
in Asia -- where free-range ducks waddle in fields and farmyards, mixing
with other animals and spreading the disease.
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- "We know that the virus is well established in set
populations such as ducks without showing any signs," said Joseph
Domenech, chief of the Animal Health Service for the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO).
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- "We have to stop or prevent that spread from reservoir
to domestic animals to humans where the risk is very high of a pandemic
one day," he told Reuters.
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- What experts fear is that the H5N1 virus could get into
a person or animal with a human flu virus and mutate into a strain that
could sweep through a world population with no immunity and kill millions.
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- With bird flu expected to linger for many years, U.N.
officials are calling for a massive effort to contain the virus before
it spreads to other parts of the world.
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- Hard-hit countries are trying to tackle the problem.
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- Thailand, where a high rate of infection has been found
in ducks, plans to slaughter about 2.7 million free-range ducks, the FAO
said.
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- In Vietnam -- where ducks can roam for kilometers, swimming
in flooded rice paddies and eating leftover grain in fields -- authorities
ordered farmers to keep their waterfowl penned up.
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- Breeding of ducks has been suspended and Ho Chi Minh
City ordered a cull of ducks this month.
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- "We consider it the source of incubation for the
virus. We have stopped the hatching until June 30," said Agriculture
Minister Cao Duc Phat.
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- http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=
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- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at:
- http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
- Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
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