Ambergris

I just the other day heard that in France, our fast food buns are not legally allowed to be called "bread."

Too bad you don't have critters to feed them to. Then you could eat them indirectly. Regardless: compost!

Bird Flu Outbreak Nears Worst Ever in U.S. With 37 Million Animals Dead Zijia Song, Elizabeth Elkin and Michael Hirtzer Fri, May 6, 2022, 6:00 AM (Bloomberg) -- A bird flu virus that’s sweeping across the U.S. is rapidly becoming the country’s worst outbreak, having already killed over 37 million chickens and turkeys, with more deaths expected through next month as farmers perform mass culls. Under guidance of the federal government, farms must destroy entire commercial flocks if just one bird tests positive for the virus, to stop the spread. That’s leading to distressing scenes across rural America. In Iowa, millions of animals in vast barns are suffocated in high temperatures or with poisonous foam. In Wisconsin, lines of dump trucks have taken days to collect masses of bird carcasses and pile them in unused fields. Neighbors live with the stench of the decaying birds. The crisis is hurting egg-laying hens and turkeys the most, with the disease largely being propagated by migrating wild birds that swarm above farms and leave droppings that get tracked into poultry houses. That’s probably how the virus contaminated egg operations in Iowa, which produce liquid and powdered eggs that go into restaurant omelets or boxed cake mixes. Further north under the same migration paths lie Minnesota’s turkey farms, which supply everything from deli meats for submarine sandwiches to whole birds for the holidays. Prices for such products are soaring to records, adding to the fastest pace of U.S. inflation in four decades. The supply deficits triggered by the flu also come as world food prices reach new highs. From the war in Ukraine to adverse weather for crops, it’s all throwing supply chains into turmoil and compounding the crisis that’s pushed millions of people into hunger since the start of the pandemic. “Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, here comes the bird flu,” said Karyn Rispoli, an egg market reporter at commodity researcher Urner Barry. Wholesale egg prices touched a record $2.90 a dozen in April in government data. Whole turkeys touched an all-time high $1.47 a pound according to Urner Barry. The last time bird flu hit the U.S. in 2015, it took the lives of about 50 million animals by the end of the season and cost the federal government over $1 billion dollars, as it handles killing and burying of birds. At the time, the industry beefed up its biosecurity around poultry houses, installing sound canons to repel wild birds, or even carwashes so farm trucks wouldn’t bring contamination from one farm to another to avoid a repeat. This time around, even with that better biosecurity, the industry has failed to prevent the transmission from wild birds, said Michelle Kromm, an executive consultant for the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association. As a precaution, farmers are supposed to go through a laborious process of completely changing their clothing and shoes before entering barns, and making sure all supplies and tools are clean. Yet weather and migration patterns are making it easier for the virus to win this year. Rare spring snowstorms are originating in the Midwest and travelling up the East Coast, and the cold, wet weather keeps the virus alive for longer, helping it spread. The flu this year is also more lethal than in the past. The deaths this season are already tracking above previous outbreaks at 37 million chickens and turkeys. The U.S.’s flock of egg-laying hens totals more than 300 million birds (chickens raised for meat, known as broilers, haven’t been as affected). “We all need to maintain really high awareness that the environment is contaminated,” said Beth Thompson, a veterinarian at the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. The weather “needs to warm up and dry out to kill that virus that’s sitting out there.” Iowa, the U.S.’s center of egg production, has been hit the worst. One farm, Rembrandt Enterprises, destroyed its giant flock of 5.3 million hens starting in late March using a government-approved yet controversial method called ventilation shutdown plus. The technique, which is being widely used to eliminate millions of chickens at a time during this outbreak, involves closing up barns so that temperatures rise and the animals suffocate over hours. Turkeys can be killed by spraying a firefighting foam that suffocates them. Rembrandt didn’t respond to requests for comment. Bird flu is also wreaking havoc in Canada, wiping out almost two million fowl. The virus has never been in multiple provinces at the same time. “We’re worried. We’re worried for sure,” said Lisa Bishop-Spencer, spokeswoman for Chicken Farmers of Canada. One person involved in culling infected birds in Colorado has contracted the avian flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The risk of the bird flu spreading to humans remains low, even with this case, the agency said. Flus that spread from animals to humans are a concern because in rare instances, the result can be a pandemic. Longer Recovery It won’t be easy to recover from the crisis. In 2015, it took the egg industry over a year to ramp back up, according to Maro Ibarburu-Blanc, a research scientist at Iowa State University’s Egg Industry Center. This time, supplies could be hit for longer because farmers whose operations were affected by the virus may make a transition to cage-free production, which is a long-term trend in the industry, said Mark Jordan, a poultry analyst with LEAP Market Analytics. Massive outbreaks may continue to plague the U.S. poultry industry as long as bigger bird barns stay in vogue. And the trend is toward bigger. “We continue to see consolidation of facilities, new facilities continue to be built that are for several million birds,” said John Brunnquell, chief executive officer of Egg Innovations.

Avian flu confirmed in 2 backyard Pacific Northwest flocks GILLIAN FLACCUS Fri, May 6, 2022, 2:56 PM PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An avian flu that's spreading quickly across the U.S. has been detected in the Pacific Northwest in two backyard bird flocks in rural Oregon and Washington. Several geese in a noncommercial flock of about 100 waterfowl died suddenly on a farm in Linn County, Oregon, and federal authorities confirmed Friday that they died of the avian flu. It was the state's first case since 2015. Also Friday, authorities in Washington state received word that chickens and turkeys in a flock of about 50 birds at a noncommercial farm in Pacific County, Washington, also had the disease. All the birds in both states were euthanized Friday and the farms were put under quarantine. The latest outbreak of avian flu hit North America in December and has led to the culling of about 37 million chickens and turkeys in U.S. farms since February. More than 35 million birds in flocks across 30 states have been affected. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed 956 cases of bird flu in wild birds, including at least 54 bald eagles. But the actual number is likely significantly higher because not every wild bird that dies is tested and the federal tally doesn’t include cases recorded by wildlife rehabilitation centers. The discovery of the avian flu in the Pacific Northwest wasn’t unexpected as the virus has been spreading rapidly across the country in both domestic and wild birds, particularly water fowl. The virus seems to be spreading as wild birds migrate north along the Pacific Flyway and sometimes those birds stop to rest amidst domestic flocks, said Dana Dobbs, a veterinarian with Washington state. “The long and the short of it is the producer noticed that one day a crow flew in with some of his chickens and the next day, he literally described that they were dropping like flies,” she said. “We want to contain and eradicate this disease as soon as possible to protect our commercial poultry industry as well as some of our backyard flocks that are selling eggs and doing things like that.” The cases do not pose a risk to humans, and birds from the farms were not used for food. Wildlife authorities in the Pacific Northwest said Friday that the virus seems to primarily affect waterfowl, but people who feed songbirds should take extra steps to clean their feeders frequently out of an abundance of caution. There are no detections of the avian flu in commercial poultry in either state, state agriculture officials said Friday.

Fell in while reaching for a book. Have two of my toes taped together in case broke, and ice on the back. Very aggravating. Toes can't be broken. Not swelling enough.

Nice!

Roast chicken. Clearing out the freezer and best of the best storage. Showed them how to make merengue cookies, tapenade, hummus, and seedy crackers this week, and will either make a pavlova or custard pie tomorrow when the twins come. I am gaining weight.

U.S. records first case of highly contagious bird flu in human, health officials say Tim Stelloh Thu, April 28, 2022, 11:23 PM A highly contagious strain of avian flu that has likely killed hundreds of birds and spread across more than two dozen states has been detected in a human for the first time in the U.S., officials said Thursday. The man was working on a commercial farm in Colorado and was involved in culling poultry suspected to be infected when he was directly exposed to the H5N1 flu, the state’s health department said in a release. The man, described as younger than 40, has reported only one symptom — fatigue — and was taking the antiviral drug Tamiflu, the department said. A positive test administered this week by the state health department, which said it has been monitoring people exposed to poultry and wild birds, was confirmed Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency said. The state health department described the man as a prison inmate who was working at a Montrose County farm as part of a pre-release employment program. The affected flock was euthanized, the department said. The state health agency and the CDC said Thursday that the risk the virus poses to people still remains low. Although public health officials have worried that a mutation could present a threat to humans, only one other human case has been detected worldwide — a person who raised birds in the United Kingdom tested positive for the virus in December. The person was asymptomatic, the CDC said. Earlier versions of the virus infected roughly 880 people beginning in 2003, the agency said. Although the virus rarely infects people, it can be severe when it does: According to the CDC, its mortality rate is 60 percent. The H5N1 virus now circulating has been found in commercial and backyard birds in 29 states and in wild birds in 34 states, the CDC said. An outbreak at a lake outside Chicago is believed to have killed more than 200 birds, and at least three bald eagles died from the virus in Georgia. Millions of chickens and turkeys have been killed to prevent the virus's spread, prompting a surge in poultry prices.

Studying my Spanish, doing brainwork and exercises to lower the blood pressure, working on keeping the housemate calm and moving in the direction of getting some kind of VA or other benefits so she can move out, working on nudging DS1 into the job market, encouraging DS2 through the process of refinancing his house for a consolidation loan (my opinion was not asked nor given--I'm just supporting his decisions), somehow managed to get a full day's work in at the day job too--it helped that the last few days were those days where you stack up all the pieces but don't get credit for doing anything, but then for the next couple of days the pieces keep falling into place.

Patients suffering from respiratory and neurological symptoms, including loss of taste and smell. Long-haul sufferers who struggle to muster the energy to return to work. A pandemic with a penchant for attacking the elderly and obese with particular force. This is the “Russian Flu,” which killed an estimated 1 million worldwide from 1889 to 1890, but likely hung around much longer—and might still lurk, in some form, today. Predating the “Spanish Flu” pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million worldwide, the Russian Flu likely wasn’t a flu at all. Instead, its symptoms more closely resemble a coronavirus—a category of viruses named for their crown-like appearance under a microscope, of which COVID-19 is a member. Coronaviruses typically cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory infections in humans and are responsible for a handful of common colds. But some have turned deadly, including COVID-19; SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), an epidemic that emerged in 2002 and killed hundreds; and MERS (Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome), another epidemic that emerged in 2012 and killed hundreds. “The epidemiology and clinical symptoms of the Russian Flu are much more in line with COVID than what we know about influenza pandemics,” said Dr. Harald Bruessow, editor of Microbial Biotechnology and a guest professor at KU Leuven in Belgium who has studied and published extensively on the esoteric ailment. “You have respiratory infection, but at the same time there are strong neurologic symptoms,” he said of both the Russian Flu and COVID. “There’s also something like Long COVID that was observed following the Russian Flu pandemic. These people were incapacitated for a really long time, with an increase in suicide rate and an inability to return to full work capacity. “All this stuff makes one think that one is dealing with a coronavirus infection in the 1880s.” The forgotten ‘flu’ “The Russian Flu was actually the best case I could figure out of a respiratory pandemic of a comparable size to COVID that was sufficiently medically documented,” Bruessow said of the disease, thought to have originated in cattle in Turkestan before enveloping the Russian empire and sweeping the world. In one of his articles on the ailment, Bruessow refers to a 344-page doctors’ report from 1891 London, which describes Russian Flu patients as suffering from a “hard, dry cough,” fevers of 100-105 degrees, “frontal headache of special severity,” “pains in the eyeballs,” “general feeling of misery and weakness, and great depression of spirits,” and “weeping, nervous restlessness, inability to sleep, and occasional delirium.” Children seemed relatively spared, often only mildly affected, if they fell ill at all. Those who were elderly—in addition to those with pre-existing conditions like heart disease, tuberculosis, or diabetes—were more apt to take a fatal course. And there’s more: Nearly 10% of cases saw continued symptoms, referred to by European doctors of the time as “long enduring evil effects.” As with COVID, it was noted that patients were likely infectious before developing symptoms, and were occasionally reinfected, as was the case with a patient who fell ill with the “flu” in December 1889 in France, and then again a month later in January 1890 in England. Dr. Tom Ewing, a history professor and associate dean at Virginia Tech who has published extensively on the topic, considered the Russian Flu an apt comparison during the first three months of the COVID pandemic due to its quick spread and global efforts to track symptoms. He now considers the Spanish Flu to be a better comparison due to the body count: It's thought to have killed about 650,000 people in the U.S. in eight months, and COVID has killed nearly a million in the U.S. in a little over two years. In contrast, the Russian Flu is thought to have killed a million worldwide, in sum. "I think where the useful comparisons are is, how do people react?" Ewing said. "How do they respond to first reports? How do physicians deal with a new threatening scale of disease? What we're all living with right now—at what point do you say it's all over? Is the 'Russian Flu' still a killer? The Russian Flu is typically considered to have lasted from 1889 through 1890, but in reality, it lasted much longer—through 1894, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine—and nearly a decade, depending on whom you talk to. Major mortality peaks, as seen in public health data from the United Kingdom, continued through 1899 or 1900, Bruessow said, adding that the mortality peaks in England during that period are nearly as high as they were during what was likely the first phase of the Russian Flu. It is unknown if later deaths were from additional waves of the Russian Flu or something else. But reports of symptoms from potential later waves, found in The Lancet and other British medical journals, are “strikingly similar,” and contemporary researchers were “formulating the suspicion” of an up-flair, he said. All this “makes me think that we should consider the possibility that the Russian Flu agent was evolving and hanging around and even causing a major mortality peak in the United Kingdom and elsewhere,” he concluded. While it’s unknown if the Russian Flu was indeed a coronavirus, some believe it lives on today as OC43, a common human coronavirus that often causes upper respiratory tract illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While its presentation is often mild, the pathogen is known to cause bronchitis, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia in children and the elderly, as well as immunosuppressed patients, and its presentation may be easily confused with that of COVID-19, according to a 2021 article in The Southwest Respiratory and Critical Care Chronicles. The thought that the Russian Flu endures as OC43 is a “fascinating hypothesis,” developed when scientists realized how genetically similar OC43 is to bovine coronavirus and projected a common ancestor arising around 1890—the Russian Flu era, and a time of major cattle pandemics that may have spread to humans. If they’re correct, the Russian Flu is still circulating, and it's still occasionally deadly—a 2021 study published in Nature found a 9.1% mortality rate for those hospitalized with confirmed cases of OC43, though it only tracked 77 patients between 2012 and 2017 at one Korean hospital. The Russian Flu may indeed be "still killing people off, and we're just not paying attention to it, which is totally plausible," Chakravarty said. "We used to think the Epstein-Barr Virus was harmless," and now we know it raises the risk of developing multiple sclerosis by more than 30 times. "There's a lot of sort of 'dark matter' in the infectious disease world that we haven't fully mapped out." Such a future may await COVID, Bruessow contends. “This is what virologists working in the viral evolution field are thinking we should expect from SARS-CoV2,” he said regarding the potential of COVID to persist well into the future. “Some people think the Omicron variant that dominates now is already going a bit in this direction, because this variant is much less affecting the lung and much more targeting the upper respiratory tract.” Bruessow hopes Omicron is “the last hoorah” of COVID-19’s acute phase—the Russian Flu’s lasted about three years—but he’s well aware this may not be the case. “Personally, I would be a bit skeptical” that Omicron would be the end of this, he said. “The virus will still occupy our societies for a while.” Even if the Russian Flu eventually became less severe, there’s no reason to necessarily think COVID-19 will go the same route, Bruessow cautions, nor is the Russian Flu's presumed attenuation necessarily permanent. “Viral evolution is really neutral with respect to virulence," he said. "The indication is that [COVID-19] will try to escape from the immune response, simply to infect the maximum number of people, and the virus with the highest efficiency will replace less efficient viral types. “This is the dynamic we are seeing, of increasing transmission. There’s no guarantee that the next wave won’t be a virus that has, once again, increased virulence, like Delta.” 'Pandemic-era' life for more than a century Among Chakravarty's take-aways from the Russian Flu: "The body count can still pile up" over several years, even if a disease isn't incredibly transmissible and has a relatively low fatality rate, as was the case with the Russian Flu. Even so, "mortality bounced around," he said. "There wasn't a steady decrease toward endemicity." Regardless, COVID is "much more contagious" than the Russian Flu was, Chakravarty cautions—and the world is much better connected than it was in the industrial era, allowing for greater ease of disease spread. COVID has a "screamingly high" transmission rate—one person with Omicron infects, on average, eight to nine others, making it nearly as infectious as mumps—and the duration of immunity is low, he cautioned. The potential Russian Flu wave of 1900 is the last mention of the illness Bruessow sees in medical literature. There seem to have been seasonal, legitimate influenza outbreaks up until the onset of the Spanish Flu in 1918, after which major respiratory pandemics “were all influenza related.” “After that, there’s no indication of a coronavirus causing a major epidemic in the 20th century," he said. It's possible that a "very mild" coronavirus continued to circulate throughout the 20th century but was less impactful due to improvements in public health and quality of life, Ewing said. During the early 20th century "health was getting better, mortality rates were decreasing, life expectancy was going up." This, in addition to tuberculous public health campaigns encouraging people to beware of coughing, sneezing, and spitting in public, may have blunted any circulating coronaviruses, he said. While the Spanish Flu may not be the best lens through which to view COVID-19, it does contain pertinent lessons, Bruessow contends. While the Spanish Flu is generally thought to have subsided in 1919 after three waves, later waves occurred periodically in the late 1920s into the 1940s—some as virulent as the initial Spanish Flu, with even higher mortality. As U.S. COVID czar Dr. Anthony Fauci and colleagues pointed out in a 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article, "It is not generally appreciated that descendants of the H1N1 influenza A virus that caused the catastrophic and historic pandemic of 1918-1919 have persisted in humans for more than 90 [now 100] years and have continued to contribute their genes to new viruses, causing new pandemics," including the 2009 H1N1 "swine flu." "We are living in a pandemic era that began around 1918," they wrote 13 years ago—long before the advent of COVID-19. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

My eye doctor rolls his eyes at me for having all my old glasses. But old glasses are better than no glasses. And sometimes they're better than the new ones.

I use it for soup, too.

I can't open that.

I got adopted by some teenagers, now twenty. They stayed with me every weekend until one went to college. The college one comes about once a month still, but (a) is around a lot of young careless/carefree people and (b) is moving on with life and less interested in lessons on biscuit-making, pie-baking, and so on. The other twin still comes (and reaches things I can't reach while she's here).

This stuff is seasonal, I hear. Based on wild bird migration patterns. Look into how Europe is managing home duck flocks.

Doing a little cleanup outside too. It's almost time for the year's first mowing. Went shopping and bought nothing but fresh dairy for the planned custard pies, BOGO sandwich bread, sodas for DS, and pie crusts. The twins are not up to making both crust and pie in the same day yet. Or I'm not up to supervising them doing so (and cleaning up from doing so). For the rest of the week's groceries, we are pulling canned salmon and other choice items out of storage.

April 21: Last week, prices for conventional eggs increased by 40 cents per dozen to $1.47 while cage-free egg prices rose 3 cents to $2.40 per dozen, according to the USDA. Organic eggs, which are from chickens required to have access to the outdoors, were selling for a national average of $4.39 a dozen last week, up from $3.65 the week before. The price of eggs used by bakeries and other food products hit a record high on April 8. Breaker eggs, which will later be broken by processors and sold in containers weighing up to 50 pounds, peaked at $2.51 per pound. Many of the egg layers that have died from bird flu were on farms contracted to provide breaker eggs

Chinese man hospitalized with H5N6 avian flu infection [different flu, but still bird flu] The H5N6 avian flu virus has sickened one more in China, a man from Sichuan province in the country's southwest, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said today. The 56-year-old man's symptoms began on Mar 31, and he was hospitalized on Apr 4 where he is remains in serious condition. An investigation found that he had been exposed to live domestic poultry before he got sick. So far, China has reported 13 H5N6 cases for the year, part of ongoing activity that saw a large spike in 2021. H5N6 is known to circulate in poultry in a handful of Asian countries, and infection in humans is often severe or fatal. The virus was first detected in humans in 2014 and has so far infected 77 people in China. Laos is the only other country that has reported a human case. Apr 20 CHP statement Avian flu continues to hit wild birds, including raptors, in multiple states [H5N1, the one we're tracking specifically] Tests on wild birds found dead and in surveillance samples taken from hunter-harvested bird and live birds turned up 98 more positives for highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza, especially in Midwestern states, according to the latest update from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Many of the latest positive samples were from North Dakota, much of it in wild geese found dead. Other Midwestern states reporting more avian flu in wild birds include Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Illinois. In the East, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Ohio, and Tennessee reported more H5, mostly in waterfowl. In the West, Colorado and Montana reported more positives. A number of the latest positives across several states included raptors, including bald eagles, hawks, and owls. The University of Minnesota Raptor Center said though waterfowl can carry and shed the virus without symptoms, other birds including chickens and raptors often get severe illness and die. It said the 2022 outbreak is unique due to very high levels of H5N1 circulating in wildlife. So far, the center has sampled 90 raptors, of which 37 tested positive for highly pathogenic avian flu. Affected birds include great horned owls, bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, and a barred owl. The Raptor Center has suspended public tours due to rising highly pathogenic flu cases and is urging people who live in high transmission areas to consider pausing the use of bird feeders and baths for the next few months as a way of preventing birds from gathering and the virus from spreading.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: The last time a deadly new bird flu showed up here - seven years ago - it really hit poultry farms. BRYAN RICHARDS: In 2014, 2015, we saw, I think, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million domestic poultry affected. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Bryan Richards says that virus didn't infect many wild birds. This time, it's different. RICHARDS: We've got wild bird detections in 32 states. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Richards is the emerging disease coordinator at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center. He says this virus came across the Atlantic a few months ago, probably carried by migratory birds. RICHARDS: It can kill some waterfowl, but I think there's pretty clear evidence that some waterfowl likely are not affected by it. And therefore, they're perfect transport mechanisms for taking it very long distances. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Since this virus arrived, it's killed birds that belong to more than 40 species - mostly ducks and geese, but also scavengers like black vultures and bald eagles that presumably eat the carcasses of birds killed by the virus. David Stallknecht is a bird flu researcher with the University of Georgia. He says there have been large die-offs of ducks in Florida and snow geese in the Midwest. DAVID STALLKNECHT: This outbreak in the wild bird population is a lot more extensive than we saw in 2014, 2015 - just a lot more birds appear to be affected. GREENFIELDBOYCE: So far, he hasn't seen indications that any species will lose so many birds that it will become threatened. But the spread of this virus in wild birds suggests that this outbreak may not burn itself out like the last one did. Ron Fouchier is a flu expert at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands. RON FOUCHIER: There's a chance that the virus will stick around, and this will become a long-term problem. GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says that's what this virus has done in Europe, where it arrived a few years ago and never left. It's been causing massive die-offs in wild birds and continues to strike poultry flocks, resulting in the deaths of more than 17 million poultry birds since December. Fouchier says there's only been one known human infection - a farmer in the United Kingdom who lived in close quarters with ducks that got this flu. That person tested positive but didn't have any symptoms. FOUCHIER: We haven't seen any other farmers or veterinarians or other people being infected. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Still, since this bird flu arrived in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been keeping a close watch. Todd Davis works on animal-to-human diseases at the agency. He says bird flu viruses related to this one have sickened and even killed people during past outbreaks in other countries. That's why public health officials here have been monitoring the health of more than 500 people in 25 states who have had contact with sick or dead birds. C TODD DAVIS: Because humans have no prior immunity to these viruses typically, if they were to be infected and spread the virus to other humans, then we could have another pandemic virus on our hands. And so that's our primary concern. GREENFIELDBOYCE: Besides testing any people who show flu-like symptoms, they're also closely tracking genetic changes in the virus, looking for anything that would suggest it might become more of a threat to people. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

Apr. 21—WILLMAR — The daily update on the status of avian flu in Minnesota now shows 50 sites of infection and nearly 2.3 million birds impacted. According to the state Board of Animal Health web page, H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza was confirmed Wednesday, April 20, at two commercial meat turkey sites in Todd County — the first confirmed sites in that county, each holding 30,000 birds. A third new site listed Thursday was in Stearns County, a flock of 63,746 commercial meat turkeys, bringing that county to six total sites. Based on West Central Tribune archives, the fourth new flock listed Thursday appears to be the seventh site identified in Kandiyohi County, a commercial meat turkey flock of more than 38,000. The eighth site had been listed one day earlier on the web page devoted to avian flu response in the state at bah.state.mn.us/hpai. Michael Crusan, communications director for the Minnesota Board of Animal Health, did not have information immediately available to confirm that, but told the West Central Tribune that the board is receiving updated information many times a day, while the web page is updated just once a day.

backyard chicken flock (non-poultry My guess is there's a zoning or other code category for "backyard chicken flock" that can be of ducks, and that they don't have a similar category for "backyard duck flock." Or Guinea hen?

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2022 – The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a non-commercial, mixed-species backyard flock (non-poultry) in Berkshire County, Massachusetts; a non-commercial, mixed-species backyard flock (non-poultry) in Johnson County, Wyoming; a commercial poultry flock in Johnston County, North Carolina; a non-commercial, backyard chicken flock (non-poultry) in Franklin County, Ohio; and a non-commercial, backyard chicken flock (poultry) in Kidder County, North Dakota. Feb 16, 2022 State Department of Agriculture asks growers to take safety precautions An outbreak of bird flu could disrupt the supply of fresh poultry if it spreads through Georgia. A deadly strain of Avian Influenza has been found on a commercial turkey farm in Indiana, a chicken operation in Kentucky and in a backyard flock in Virginia. Georgia boasts a $4 billion industry and is the nation’s top producer of broiler chickens. The Georgia Department of Agriculture says there are reports of infected wild birds in Hart County, Georgia, but not in its chicken flocks. The department on Wednesday suspended the sale of live chickens at trades shows, flea markets and other outlets. It called on growers to implement biosecurity practices to protect their flocks, such as keeping birds inside, limiting their exposure to outdoor water sources and maintaining sanitation. This strain of the bird flu is highly contagious and deadly to poultry, which is Georgia’s most lucrative farming sector. No human cases of the virus have been found in the U.S., the USDA said. State officials are quarantining the infected operations in Kentucky and Indiana and killing and disposing of the birds to prevent spread of the disease. Agriculture officials said the flu does not present a food safety risk if chickens or eggs are handled and cooked properly. Any cases of bird flu should be reported to the Georgia Avian Influenza hotline at (770) 766-6850.

April 21: For the first time, a highly contagious strain of bird flu has been detected in three dead bald eagles in Georgia, the state Department of Natural Resources announced Thursday. Testing at a federal lab in Iowa confirmed that the virus was responsible for the deaths, according to Bob Sargent, a program manager with DNR’s wildlife resources division. The strain of avian flu is also believed to be the culprit behind disruptions in breeding by bald eagles along the Georgia coast. There were roughly 30% more failed nests that did not fledge young eaglets along the coast so far this year, the state said. In other parts of the state, eaglets appear to be fledging at normal rates, Sargent said, though results of a statewide survey won’t be ready until later this spring. “We’re concerned, but I would not say that we’re alarmed by this,” Sargent said. “Birds in the interior of the state are exhibiting normal nesting success.” The strain of bird flu detected in the three dead bald eagles is known as highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI. It is found worldwide, is untreatable and often lethal to birds that contract it. No cases of the virus have ever been detected in humans in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Human infections have occurred in other countries, most often after long periods of unprotected contact with infected birds, the CDC says. One infected bird each was found in Chatham, Glynn and Liberty counties along the Georgia coast, but DNR said additional eagle carcasses are being tested. A total of 11 other birds, including multiple species of ducks, have also tested positive for bird flu this year in Georgia, DNR said. Several eagles have tested positive in surrounding states, including the Carolinas and Florida. Wild birds in 30 states have been found infected so far this year, including birds in some commercial and backyard poultry and pheasant flocks, mostly in northern states, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Georgia’s poultry industry has not reported any cases as a result of this outbreak. The last cases to affect Georgia’s chicken industry were in 2015, according to state Department of Agriculture spokesperson Bo Warren. Still, the stakes are high for Georgia’s chicken producers. Georgia is the top U.S. producer of broiler chickens, a $4 billion industry. In a statement, Warren said the bird flu cases show that “it’s imperative that we remain vigilant in protecting our domestic bird populations from the virus and follow all biosecurity protocols.” Symptoms of HPAI in birds include lethargy, tremors and seizures. DNR says the public should report sick or dead birds to the agency, but such birds should not be handled.

Most of my clothes are bought used, or bought to coordinate with every other item I own. I own three pairs of shoes: Light, dark, moccasin/slippers. There's a pair of rubber boots and a pair of yard sandals I share with whoever goes in and out. We coordinate trips to town. If something didn't get picked up or dropped off, it has to wait until the next planned trip. (This business of having to go in to the office several times a week is cutting way into the savings, though.)