# Anybody worried about The Bird Flu? H5N1



## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Serbia and other Asia countries have cancelled there Waterfowl seasons this year. That scares me more than a pandemic.


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## Goosepride (Sep 29, 2003)

I saw that also...anyone know anymore about it?


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## goldhunter470 (Feb 25, 2005)

www.cdc.gov/flu/avian

has all the info you need


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## octnov (Aug 21, 2004)

:roll: :roll: :roll: 
Rick-
I have been wondering about the same thing. All we need is a case or two in our North American waterfowl and the fed's would shut 'er down so quick it would make your head turn a circle. I'm from Illinois and we have had several severe botulism kills over the years and that is nothing compared to what they claim the Bird Flu is, as it affects humans as well as the birds, with no cure available at present. I say get the vaccine now and store it and hope we never need it, but have it on hand. Our government likes to wait until it happens then react, that is to late!! I think it is a concern as it seems to be moving this way more and more if you watch the papers. Let's hope and pray it stays overseas.

Octnov


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## Water Swater (Oct 23, 2003)

With Northwest flying to those countries, that makes it even scarier. That could hit close to home!


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## DJRooster (Nov 4, 2002)

Nope, got to many other things to worry about. I will let the experts worry about that and when they tell me to worry then I will start to worry. Right now the media is running with it but I would be more worried about not buckling up!


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## greenheadhunter (Aug 26, 2005)

hey guys my girlfrinds dad has an inside on this whole bird flu. and take this or leave it. but doent take the vaccine it will do mre damage to than the actual flu will.


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## DeerScarer (Jul 23, 2005)

When I heard it reached European poultry this week I told my wife I'd have to hunt extra this year in case it was the last year of bird hunting for a while.

I doubt if it'll get that bad, but I plan to milk it for all it's worth! :lol:

-Dave


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## goldhunter470 (Feb 25, 2005)

Absolutly brilliant, DeerScarer!!!!!!!!! Good luck, I hope it works!!


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## I_raise_pheasants (Sep 28, 2005)

I have a little info on the bird flu, as my name states, I raise Pheasants, about 45,000 a year to be exact, and we have been monitoring the bird flu for about 3 years now, it is not something to be taken lightly, but it is something the CDC and other federal institutions have a very close eye on, this is something that will affect the poultry industry a lot more than wild populations, but there is a risk, but much more to the industry, and especially someone like myself who makes money on selling these birds. I have heard about 3 different speakers on this subject, and my dad went to a seminar at the U of Minnesota on it, and how we can spot it, but as far as our ducks for now they are safe, and we will not be able to eat our chicken long before we can't eat our ducks, so stay vigilant, but don't get to worried


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## Double Ott Buck (Oct 5, 2005)

Remember 3 yrs ago when the news media said ducks were carrying West Nile? Never happened! Peta might be influencing the media too. Like with anything, if you cook it well, it's not supposed to harm you.

As for the Bird Flu elsewhere, have watched TV lately?...it's mostly 3rd world countries for one, and for two, it seems some of those people literally live with those birds. If they said Hunting Dog Flu, I'd be more concerned about Americans, than with Bird Flu.

I guess we'll all die sometime, might as well be from doing something you love. Hope the ducks dont pay us back though. :wink:


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## Duckslayer100 (Apr 7, 2004)

I imagine this is somthing easily passed in close quarters and cramped conditions. If so the wild bird populations might not be hit as bad as we think. Snowgeese, on the other hand, is another matter. Those birds are packed tighter than a chicken coupe. The flu could do some serious damage to them!


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## NDJ (Jun 11, 2002)

anyone remember the "swine flu" in the 70's??? I was rather young, but do remember my parents getting vaccinated & lotsa media hype...


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## DeltaBoy (Mar 4, 2004)

DeerScarer said:


> When I heard it reached European poultry this week I told my wife I'd have to hunt extra this year in case it was the last year of bird hunting for a while.
> 
> I doubt if it'll get that bad, but I plan to milk it for all it's worth! :lol:


I will try this too... :wink:


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## Bob Kellam (Apr 8, 2004)

Migration may bring flu to U.S. next year
By Joseph B. Verrengia, The Forum
Published Wednesday, October 26, 2005

DENVER - As bird flu is spread continent-to-continent by wild birds, the seasonal migration that is normally one of nature's wonders is becoming something scary.

Could bird flu reach North America through migrating birds? Biologists in Alaska and Canada are keeping an eye out and say it's possible by next year.

Scientists from several agencies have been monitoring large flocks in the northern part of this continent since last summer, collecting both live birds and thousands of samples from bird droppings.

The results of those tests are pending, but so far scientists have not discovered the virus that is spreading across Asia.

Of course, the bigger fear is that bird flu will mutate into a flu that is both contagious and deadly to people that would quickly spread around the globe through international travel. The current bird flu is not easily spread to people.

But scientists are studying the virus' transmission among birds as well.

In the United States, a consortium of government agencies is seeking $5 million over the next three years to test birds along their migratory routes in the Lower 48 states beginning next spring.

"The patterns (of the virus) in Asia right now would not suggest that it would come over to North America this fall," said Christopher Brand, chief of field and lab research for the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis.

Here's why: Bird flu was observed spreading from domestic poultry to wild birds in Asia last summer in northern breeding grounds in Siberia. Most of those birds now are migrating south - along their distinctive routes called flyways - to India and Bangladesh; others follow southwestern routes to the eastern Mediterranean and even Africa.

So far, bird flu has been detected in both wild and domestic birds as far east as the Danube Delta in Romania. The virus was reported in poultry in Turkey, Romania and Russia.

"There has been a shift in the susceptibility of wild fowl to H5N1," acknowledged David Nabarro, chief U.N. coordinator for avian and human influenza.

Brand says that if those birds maintain the virus over the winter, they would have the opportunity to bring it back to northern nesting grounds in Siberia next spring and summer.

While most Siberian flocks don't try to cross the Pacific to North America, some do cross the narrow Bering Strait to Alaska.

If those birds mingle with birds from Alaska, "there is the possibility the virus could be transmitted to waterfowl or shorebirds that make their way here next fall," Brand said.

While many severely infected birds usually die within a few days and are unable to fly very far, other hardier varieties could carry the disease.

Among the Arctic species under suspicion are hardier, long-distance fliers such as eiders, gulls and geese. "It probably will be spread by one that isn't killed very easily by it," Brand said.

Many bird researchers say more dangerous transmission routes are the commercial poultry trade and the illegal trade in parrots and other rare birds for pets and collections. In both cases, birds are raised and transported in horribly cramped conditions.

The lone case of bird flu in Britain was a South American parrot that died while in quarantine with birds from Taiwan.

Conservationists argue that if migratory birds were the key factor in spreading the virus, outbreaks could also have been expected in the Philippines, Taiwan and Australia, which lie along regular migratory paths for Asian birds.

Much is still unknown about the H5N1 virus - one of the most lethal of many bird flu varieties - and how it spreads from domestic to wild birds and vice versa.

"If avian influenza has one predictable property, it is that it is not predictable," said Ohio State University biologist Richard Slemons. "It has made a fool of us more than once."


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## Rick Acker (Sep 26, 2002)

Hunt em' hard while you can boys & girls! Not good news for a bird taxidermist!


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## buckseye (Dec 8, 2003)

Sounds like we need the Airforce to knock down any intruding European birds trying to sneak in here with the flu... hell they might crap all over us. :lol:

Could you imagine being under a flock of 200,000 snows with the flu, puke and crap coming down like rain... :lol:


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