Bird Flu in Croatia

[davidzg]

I just heard on the BBC that the Croatian bird flu is the variant that can kill people, surely now they're culling all birds? I don't know a lot about it, but the fact that in Croatia there are chickens all over the place worries me.

[gmh]

They already killed 6000 birds in the area of where the swans were found.
No doubt they will kill more.
I shall predict that there will not be one case of a human contracting the bird flu in Croatia.

[davidzg]

It is very worrying, it is the first time any disease has had me concerned, perhaps I'm just getting old, but the speed that it traveled from Asia to Europe is amazing, there have already been parrots brought into the UK with bird flu.

[croam]

the point you guys are missing is that the virus hasn't mutated yet so unless your a bird you have nothing to worry about. if it mutates half of us will die so you won't be alone.

having said that, i think if anything wipes us out it will be something biological like this. should make for good television.

[gmh]

Actually it has already made for good tv and movies. even last night on tv here they played a tele movie about a virus that kills thousands.
The virus wasn't that quick to get here. It was first discovered 4 years ago in asia. The thing is, they just hadn't discovered it before, and they are only just now starting to test for it in europe. It's been here for a while already I imagine, and there are many more virus' here that have yet to be discovered.

[croam]

the supidity of the media/government reaction is that the real problem would be if the H51 Avian strain mutated WITH your ordinary human flu virus into a hybrid flu. If that scenario happened, then there would be a pandemic.

I'm no expert, but i've never heard of a hybrid virus. Two viruses becoming one? How is that possible without genetic engineering in a laboratory? Seems like science fiction to me. Regardless, it hasn't happened yet.

i think the media and whomever controls it loves to keep people glued to the television and distracted from the real issues. of course i could be wrong and we could be on the brink of extinction. anyone's guess.

[davidzg1]

I have heard on the grapevine from a friend who is a journalist for a tabloid in London, that we are about to get some very bad news about bird flu in the next few days.

[irac2]

For those of us who suffered through the "foot and mouth epidemic", that manufactured joke that brought to light, what would be quickly buried, the corruption in governments both sides of the Irish Sea and how criminal elements benefitted massively from livestock swindles. The cost, tens of thousands of sheep, our relegation (illegal) from Division 2 and the kind of hysteria that the rags love. Too much of this current mess smacks of it. And aren't those failing battery farms loving the fact that the government are paying top dollar for each hen they kill (will the figures be out of whack like in Ireland and the UK?)

[croam]

i agree with you Irac. You forgot to mention the windfall profits the pharmaceutical companies will "earn" from developing vaccines to combat this "threat". I can't stand reading injustices like this first thing in the morning. makes me so angry.

if i get a tumor from my cell phone i will snipe as many telecom CEOs as i can before they take me down.

the world needs an enema.

[gavul]

Tito's Parrot Quarantined over Bird Flu Fears

Politics: 29 October 2005, Saturday.

The parrot Koki of the former Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito has been put under quarantine as a precautionary measure following the bird flu cases reported in Croatia, DPA reported.

The Croatian media reported that Koki has been quarantined along with other birds in the northern Adriatic archipelago Brijuni, a former summer residence of Tito, who passed away back in 1980.

Koki, who is a talking parrot, is a tourism attraction for all guests at Brijuni. He was a present for Tito.

Earlier in the week the strain of the bird flu virus lethal to humans was found in Croatia. The virus, also known as avian flu, was discovered in wild swans found dead at a pond in eastern Croatia last week.

[croam]

OK, I'm not an Ornothologist but... how in the heck can Tito's parrot still be alive if he passed away in 1980? wtf?

What's the lifespan of a parrot?

Is this a joke or what?

[bobsyouruncle]

Apparently, the lifespan of a parrot is 80 years. Kinda wierd that your parrot could outlive you. So, it's quite possible that Tito's parrot is still around.