12/07: H5N1: Bangkok/ World Bank/Mexico Duck Deaths

from www.bangkokpost.com

Bird flu likely behind mass poultry deaths in Ukraine
Kiev (dpa) - Mass poultry die-offs hit four more Ukrainian villages today, sparking fears the government effort to limit the extent of a bird flu epidemic had failed.

All the villages were located near the east coast of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, only kilometres from another eight villages with widespread bird flu infections confirmed over the weekend.

Household chicken, ducks, and geese in the villages Akimovka, Krasnoflotnoe, Dmitrovka, and Chernozemnoe were the main victims of the outbreak, and suffered symptoms similar to bird flu, Sehodnia newspaper reported.

The overnight death rate was, as in previous cases of bird flu, over ninety per cent, the Interfax news agency reported.

The most likely cause of the new deaths was the spread of bird flu into previously unaffected areas, despite a government quarantine on infected villages in place since Monday, said Mykola Patsiuk, director of Ukraine's department of veterinary medicine.

Poultry carcasses were being tested for the presence of bird flu, and if confirmed the quarantine would be expanded to the four villages, Patsiuk said.

Ukraine health authorities since the beginning of the outbreak have destroyed more than 28,000 domestic birds in the Crimea province, in an effort to limit the area infected by the disease.

Local media are blaming the government for a sluggish response to the movement of the bird flu virus, which had been identified in neighbouring Romania, Turkey and Russia up to two months previously.

Crimean health officials ignored warning signs migrating birds had infected domestic poultry as long ago as October, and waited only until late November before admitting bird flu had arrived in Ukraine, Inter television reported.

Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko sacked the country's top veterinary officer in the wake of the scandal.

World Bank bird flu aid seen ready by mid-January

Wed Dec 7, 2005 12:34 PM ET


By Lesley Wroughton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank is likely to approve a $300 million to $500 million line of credit to help countries deal with bird flu before a global summit in Beijing on January 17-18, a senior bank official said on Tuesday.

The proposed financing is currently awaiting a decision by World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz before it goes to the bank's board of member countries for approval.

The funding is seen as pivotal to global efforts to tackle a possible pandemic of the H5N1 avian flu virus, which has infected 130 people in five Asian countries, killing 69 of them.

Jim Adams, the bank's vice president for operations policy and country services, said World Bank teams were already in Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kyrgyzstan to develop bird flu programs for when the funds are available -- either through the bank or other development agencies.

"They have asked us to come out and develop a program, and normally that would lead to a request for funding, but I don't want to make decisions for them," Adams told Reuters.

"We feel we have a template, or menu of items, which we are sitting down with governments and asking them where they need the most help," he added.

Adams said plans for a separate multi-donor trust fund for bird flu were moving forward and discussions on its financing were currently underway with European donors, ahead of a formal pledging session in Beijing.

The World Bank has earmarked a $1 billion global war chest for bird flu, including its own credit facility. It has estimated that a flu pandemic lasting a year could cost the global economy up to $800 billion.

Adams said risks posed by bird flu were "very much on the table now" and the conference in Beijing, a few months after the first summit in Geneva, would reinforce global awareness.

[more follows...]

Information release mechanism helps farmers know more about bird flu

www.chinaview.cn 2005-12-08 01:33:59


KUNMING, Dec. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A sound information release mechanism has been established in China to make farmers across the nation know more about the prevention and control of bird flu, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

At the Ministerial Conference on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) on Wednesday in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, the ministry said it has mobilized experts to edit books and draw pictures that can be easily understood by farmers.

Other modern mass media means, such as TV, radio, newspaper and Internet, are also used to spread scientific knowledge on ways to fight bird flu and arouse the public's awareness of the disease.

Experts said these publicity materials targeting poorly educated farmers are easy to understand and can help farmers build confidence in fighting against the deadly avian flu.

China is the world's largest poultry producer. It produces 14 billion fowls each year.

Posted on Wed, Dec. 07, 2005


From www.herald.com


Share world-flu data

The World Bank recently warned that a bird-flu pandemic outbreak can cost $800 billion in worldwide damage. And how many priceless human lives?

Avian flu has so far taken 72 human lives, mostly in Southeast Asia. To contain the potential pandemic outbreak in the area seems too late and unrealistic given that Europe, Japan and Canada all have reported avian flu cases. However, medical- and pharmaceutical-information sharing can never be too late or too naive.

The SARS virus scourged Southeast Asia and claimed hundreds of lives three years ago. People didn't know much except to wear a mask and check their temperatures.

Fighting an invisible pandemic virus is a war, a world war. We need public-health awareness and medical and pharmaceutical data to flow to all nations. When Taiwan was hit by the SARS virus, the country was denied access to the World Health Organization data bank for related necessary information because of its nonmember status. Taiwan fought a lonely war last time.

Viruses know no borders and races. Taiwan is entitled to meaningful participation in various WHO meetings and activities. By extension, the world will be granting itself a chance to be healthier.

Mass Mexican duck death not bird flu, ag min says
06 Dec 2005 01:28:58 GMT

Source: Reuters


MEXICO CITY, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The sudden death of more than 1,000 ducks at a lake in Mexico was not caused by bird flu, the government said on Monday, but scientists are still trying to uncover why the birds mysteriously died.

An Agriculture Ministry spokesman said the condition of the dead birds, found by a lake in central Aguascalientes state, showed they had been dying over a period of days or weeks.

Scientists are trying to work out if the birds died of botulism, a rare but deadly illness caused by a toxic bacteria, or from pollution, the ministry said.

The ministry would not say what species of duck had been hit in the mass death, or how it had ruled out bird flu as a cause of death.

Although Mexico has had some cases of a low pathogenic strain of the flu, which presents no known risk to humans, it has so far been successful at keeping out the highly contagious and deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

Migratory birds like ducks are seen as a possible cause of cross-border infection since flu was detected in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania.

H5N1 is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia, where it has killed almost 70 people.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form which can be transmitted easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions of people could die.

Some environmental activists in Mexico say the virus could enter the country via a thriving trade, both illegal and legal, in exotic birds such as parrots.

Mexico prohibits the import of all birds and bird products from countries with confirmed outbreaks of the virus.

But environmental groups want a blanket ban, arguing the nature of trade in exotic birds makes it hard to determine their origin.

bump

Excellent detective work, Nuthatch. Between you and Shakey, we can't say we didn't know!


I particularly love the Mexican ducks report... "It's not birdflu, repeat...it's not the birdflu..."






Thanks, Nuthatch. I appreciate your efforts.


Seabird

So what was it, the salsa?? Ok, I guess it could be bad water or something.

Nuthatch said:

Mass Mexican duck death not bird flu, ag min says
06 Dec 2005 01:28:58 GMT

Source: Reuters


MEXICO CITY, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The sudden death of more than 1,000 ducks at a lake in Mexico was not caused by bird flu, the government said on Monday, but scientists are still trying to uncover why the birds mysteriously died.

An Agriculture Ministry spokesman said the condition of the dead birds, found by a lake in central Aguascalientes state, showed they had been dying over a period of days or weeks.

Scientists are trying to work out if the birds died of botulism, a rare but deadly illness caused by a toxic bacteria, or from pollution, the ministry said.

The ministry would not say what species of duck had been hit in the mass death, or how it had ruled out bird flu as a cause of death.

Although Mexico has had some cases of a low pathogenic strain of the flu, which presents no known risk to humans, it has so far been successful at keeping out the highly contagious and deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

Migratory birds like ducks are seen as a possible cause of cross-border infection since flu was detected in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania.

H5N1 is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia, where it has killed almost 70 people.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form which can be transmitted easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions of people could die.

Some environmental activists in Mexico say the virus could enter the country via a thriving trade, both illegal and legal, in exotic birds such as parrots.

Mexico prohibits the import of all birds and bird products from countries with confirmed outbreaks of the virus.

But environmental groups want a blanket ban, arguing the nature of trade in exotic birds makes it hard to determine their origin.

Click to expand...

They shouldn't have drank the water.....

Lions and Tigers and birdflu oh my. Lions and Tigers and bird flu oh my.

You realize in all this looming crisis of the bird flu there are moments, sublime, pure, simple and standing out in their sublime stupidity, that just reach out and slap you in the face. I smeeeel a Darwin award in all this!

Gee, this is the mexican government that is so incompentent millions of their own people invade the USA to escape it? ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THIS MEXICAN GOVERNMENT? This is the one that assures us, absolutely assures that these ducks just heard about Peking duck and had a mass, hysterical collapse?

If you believe this mexican hombre you deserve to have your brain suctioned out and examined by a scientist. Do you remember the Mexican cabinet minister's famous quote about how if a few illegals died in the desert it was no big deal.

I assure you American attitudes towards filthy foreigners, as in the disease ridden foreign hordes among us, will change radically when the body count starts. Yep, old Doomer Doug will seem like a love in refugee at that time.

It is beginning, not only in the New world. KEEP YOUR EYE ON INDONESIA AND JAKARTA. DOOMER DOUG HAS WARNED YOU