MaxedOutMama
Thursday, July 28, 2005
As The Geese Fly
The jig has pretty much been up regarding bird flu dispersing rapidly ever since the die-off of bar-headed geese and other birds in Qinghai. As the survivors moved on, it was a given that this extremely virulent subtype would move beyond China. Recombinomics notes that Altai has now instituted a poultry quarantine after bird flu made it to Novosibirsk:
The territory is in southern Siberia adjacent to Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China. Thus, it has a bird outbreak to the northwest, around the Chany Lake area, and three outbreaks to the south in Xinjiang and Qinghai provinces in China. All outbreaks have been linked to migratory birds, which is consitent with sequence data from H5N1 isolates in Qinghai Lake.One would hope that the US would institute a bird and wildlife tracking and testing program. Once it makes it to Siberia one can expect an imminent appearance in North America. H5N1 seems to infect pigs, domestic fowl and other animals that may eat dead and dying birds. Tigers, for example, have died of H5N1 in India.
The sequences in these birds have regions in common with isolates in Europe, including H5N2 from birds and various mammalian isolates. One change in particular is striking. The PB2 mutation E627K has never been detected previously in an H5N1 isolate from a bird. However, it is present in all human isolates. This strict species barrier was broken at Qinghai Lake, where all bird isolates have E627E. It has appeared previously in humans infected with bird serotypes H5N1 and H7N7 and in almost all cases the infection has been fatal....
In August and September birds will leave Russia and head for Europe, India, and eastern Asia, raising concerns that the highly lethal H5N1 will spread throughout Asia, much of Europe, and beyond.
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You won't be happy till you scare me to death, will you?
You are right, of course. The jig is indeed up, re bird flu. It is upon us.
We cannot rely upon these countris to either report truthfully or attempt to mitigate the problem honestly or effectively.
Maybe we need to offer financial incentives- do the job right and we'll pay you, with that payout coming after 2-3 years of no outbreaks.
Has to be cheaper than dealing with a bigger problem on our shores.
You are right, of course. The jig is indeed up, re bird flu. It is upon us.
We cannot rely upon these countris to either report truthfully or attempt to mitigate the problem honestly or effectively.
Maybe we need to offer financial incentives- do the job right and we'll pay you, with that payout coming after 2-3 years of no outbreaks.
Has to be cheaper than dealing with a bigger problem on our shores.
Well - I don't think we can avoid a problem on our shores. You can't fight Mother Nature.
But it is possible that we could ameliorate it. I have never really bought the idea that ignorance is bliss.
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But it is possible that we could ameliorate it. I have never really bought the idea that ignorance is bliss.
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