US BF watch -California

[Guest Guest]

I mentioned in another post last month that our local news mentioned a bird had been found with bird flu.

 

Just a few minutes ago, FOX news was doing a snippet on BF and cock fighting and how this can transmit BF to humans. There was a poultry farmer interviewed talking about how this will hurt the state and poultry farmers...

 

then in a brief little sentence, 'california has had one confirmed case of BF and may have to remove other poultry within a few miles of the contaminated bird' (paraphrased)

 

NO mention of which city or if it was North, Central or Southern California.

 

So I went to look this up on the net... can't find a word! BUT...

 

Why would the US want this broadcasted? How does a farm come down with it in California and not be brought in via North, South, East... or how many other farms have it?

 

Leave it to California to be first!

 

Anyone else heard about this or otehr US States?

 

 

[Guest Guest]

Ohmigawd... leave it to Uncle Sugar to muck things up! No, I haven't heard anything about this but, I wish I had...

[brightblessings5]

Within the last week DBF was telling me that he had heard on the news while I was at work that there was CONCERN that BF could be brought to the states via cockfighting. He said the state that was named was LA, but I was thinking that all southern states, but especially LA, FL, TX,CA could be at risk due to their large ports. I think most states have some underground cockfighting, so if brought in this way, it could easily spread due to the illegallity of it.

 

SCARRY

[gardnmom]

Found this on a google search

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_333212149.html

Weak Strain Of Bird Flu Found At Sun Valley Farm

(CBS) SUN VALLEY Japanese quails suffering from a low pathogenic strain of bird flu were discovered in a Sun Valley quail farm.

 

The Bureau of Humane Law Enforcement, a non-governmental, nonprofit organization devoted to defending animals, began investigating conditions at the now-defunct L.A. Quail Farm earlier this year.

 

The agency served a warrant at the farm and discovered the quails living in unsanitary conditions with a multitude of illnesses.

 

All the animals were seized on Nov. 12 and were tested.

 

The bureau’s veterinarian determined many of the birds had a variety of diseases, fast-moving respiratory ailments, infections, injuries and lesions. Most disturbing was the diagnosis of a low pathogenic strain of avian influenza among the quails, which had been raised and kept at the facility.

The birds had been raised for human consumption.

 

 

[brightblessings5]

DBF just informed me that cockfighting is LEGAL in LA and NM, so therefore they feel it would be brought in through LA as birds do 'travel' for 'events'. Cockfighting=blood and transferance to other birds and then being brought into our ports. He thinks that if there were a case in the US it would be all over the news.

[Mother]

[Guest Guest]

Mother,

 

after the snippet a female newscaster came on and made the statement ...they are concerned about the birds within a few miles of this 'bird' found with bird flu... so besides the video there was a small commantary after.

 

This goes right along with the news report of BF being found in Los Angeles last month at a pet store.

 

With the hispanic population here in So.Cal, cockfighting is everywhere. I can go to a livestock auction and it is amazing how many cocks are in cages up for bid.

 

Do I honestly believe BF is here.. yes. There was a horse lost before Christmas to West Nile Virus, loosing many birds to this. We have New Castle disease and Exotic New Castle disease, how would I know if I lost my poultry to anyone of these or BF? I mean the symptoms are all the same.

 

Here in California being a huge poultry state, birds are not allowed out of the state or any in the state in the last couple of years. The local fair cancelled the poultry exhibit last year and not sure about this year.

 

Can you imagine the panic if California announced we had BF? it would devistate the nations egg and meat supply.

Can you imagine the state or county being quaranteened?

 

It was bad enough 2 years ago when thousands of birds were killed.. remember egg prices soared.

 

I am taking this second little commantary seriously as I have 100 hens and getting another 100 over the next couple of months.

 

Cock fights don't last too long here, my dogs are too funny.. they run at them to break it up!

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

Yesterday while groaning and suffering with just the "regular" flu....I again listened to the NPR report Darlene shared on this board recently. They interviewed several "experts" on this topic including Dr. Osterholm. He is a highly reasoned scientist and now works within Homeland Security if I recall correctly. I heard him speak on Oprah a few weeks ago and he does not strike me as being one to minimize risks.

 

The program speakers mentioned that, given migratory patterns of wild birds, the Bird Flu is likely to hit the U.S. in about 2 months. They suspect it will cross the Bering Strait into Alaska first so you gals are right on in suspecting it will first be seen in the Pacific states first. And then another migratory pattern will take it into eastern Canada and down our eastern seaboard.

 

I believe Dr. Osterholm said that while the spread amongst birds increases the risk of eventual mutation, the fact it may spread bird-to-bird into the U.S. does not mean we in America are necessarily in greater danger since here in America the vast majority of our poultry industry keeps birds inhouse isolated from wild birds.

 

That is the gist of what I understood. With all that said though the problem is that "perceived" danger increases once BF amongst birds is found here in the states. Some of you make a great point about the cock fighting problem. I do realize humans are catching BF from wild birds elsewhere around the world, but the people contracting the terrible illness are primarily people working in close contact with birds, in particular plucking feathers and so forth.

 

So yes, it's coming to a state near you and me at sometime in the future. But whether it goes human-to-human or whether the virus weakens or not is more the issue we have to be alarmed about according to what I understood from the program. The question is when will it hit in that form and how hard will the hit be.

 

I think the problem we're all concerned about here is that when BF is found in the wild bird population here many people may begin to panic and we may begin seeing economic consequences. In some ways it could be a blessing in disguise because people in our country would stop looking at it as a problem on the other side of the world.

 

Did everyone see those grocery store planning details Darlene shared in another thread? That gives the creeps for sure. I'm praying hard that a pandemic (whether it be BF or something else) is far, far down the road so that the infrastructure has some lead time in getting ready.

[Mother]

Well, Westbrook, that pops MY bubble. Wishful thinking perhaps.

 

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

Mother, here is an article touching on your question for the UK at least: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4345079.stm

 

 

[Mother]

Thanks Teaberry, I read through a lot of the different articles about BF on that site and it's still not reassuring. They actually tell the public not to be "too concerned" cause the government has it all in hand. Never mind they did say that quarantine and etc might be necessary. Hint hint??

 

 

 

 

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

Exactly.

 

And in my mind part of the problem is our society has changed from where people are independent from relying on surrounding infrastructure to highly dependent on it.

 

Mother, I'll start another thread because I do not want to inadvertently change Westie's original thread topic. I think some of the questions being brought up here are important.

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

This may be useful: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/world/...flu/default.stm

 

Here's a case where a different type of bird virus popped up back in '98 and our people handled it quickly.

 

http://www.ext.vt.edu/news/periodicals/liv...04/aps-900.html

 

Avian Influenza Update

 

Livestock Update, April 1998

 

Phillip J. Clauer, Animal and Poultry Sciences, Virginia Tech

 

Avian Influenza (AI) just will not go away. New cases have been reported of AI found in Pennsylvanian and North Carolina in past month. This should help remind all of us the biosecurity is extremely important at all times.

 

We also have received information that serologically positive H7N2 avian influenza birds have been found in a menagerie flock of approximately 5,500 birds near Kenly, North Carolina. According to Dr. John Atwell with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, the positive farm was found as the result of a traceback from an AI positive New Jersey live-bird market. Buyers and sellers in the positive New Jersey market at the time of the AI discovery have since been contacted. That led to the North Carolina man.

 

At the home premise of the North Carolina man, 500 chickens and ducks were depopulated this March 3rd with the consent of the owner. Across the stress, there are 5,000 broilers in an old greenhouse. This premise has been quarantined. North Carolina does not have the authority to destroy the birds and has no indemnity system. The owner has not agreed to a voluntary, non-compensated depopulation. Several poultry companies have discussed raising the money to indemnify the owner. There have been no sick or dying birds at the two North Carolina sites. No virus has been isolated. The flock owner apparently buys and sells birds in the New York/New Jersey live-bird markets and is said to buy spent hens from Pennsylvania.

 

On February 25 and 16, 1998 two (2) new cases of H7N2 avian influenza were diagnosed in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Both are layer flocks (200,000 birds and 135,00 birds). One of the flocks is in the previous area of general quarantine and is on a farm which had been previously infected, depopulated and subjected to a Department monitored cleaning and disinfection. The other flock is located several miles south of the previous areas of general quarantine. With the addition of these two (2) cases, there are now four (4) existing/premises flocks (all are in Lancaster County) which are quarantined because of infection with the H7N2 influenza virus.

[brightblessings5]

I don't know if this related, but....

 

Mother asked..."....what IS being suggested by GOVERNMENTS around the world?"

 

We heard on the news (DBF pays more attention to the news than I do, and REMEMBERS, so I always have to verify w/him), but anyhow, a coroner in OH ordered X-amout (can't remember the exact #, but it was quite a few) BODYBAGS, I guess the city was quite upset with her for spending this kind of $.

 

 

 

 

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

Necie, could you ask your dh to share the link where he found that story please? Thanks!

[brightblessings5]

DBF isn't being any help right now--he's . He saw it on our local news, as NE IN, NW OH, AND SW MI are considered local.

 

I googled it, though and found a few...

 

http://www.wdtn.com/dsp_story.cfm?storyid=27782

 

 

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

Thanks Necie. Oh Yuck.

 

And I was hoping that was Miami, Florida.....which would make more sense perhaps considering their history.

 

Does Miami in your area get a lot of tornados per chance? With unusually high body counts?

 

I think I'm kidding with that question, but then again, maybe not.

[brightblessings5]

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?sea...mp;amp;zipcode=

 

The actual town is Troy, OH. It is probably 130 mi from us. While we don't get as many tornados as 'tornado alley', we still get the occasional one. They aren't on the river, so I wouldn't think flooding, unless it was severe.

 

I think, like the story stated that she wants to stock up in case of the bird flu pandemic. She does state that 'the body bags could be stored for years and would be useful if other disasters occur'.

[Guest Guest]

I guess my questions would be, what is the population of Troy? What percentage of the population does the number 1,000 represent, and what does she know about AF that we don't?

 

As a coroner, I'm sure she is privvy to some information not disseminated for public consumption...

[kaseyb (Supermom!)]

Yes. Good questions all, Nana.

 

Necie, keep talking, girl!

[Guest Guest]

http://www.recombinomics.com/PR/030306.html

 

Recombinomics Inc. Identifies American Sequences in the H5N1 (Avian Flu) Virus

 

Recombinomics Inc Identifies American Sequences in the H5N1 (Avian Flu) Virus

 

PITTSBURGH, Mar. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Recombinomics is issuing a warning based on the identification of American sequences in the Qinghai strain of H5N1 isolated in Astrakhan, Russia. The presence of the America sequences in recent isolates in Astrakhan indicates H5N1 has already migrated to North America. The levels of H5N1 in indigenous species will be supplemented by new sequences migrating into North America in the upcoming months.

 

Recombinomics uses its patent pending technology to trace the movement of informative sequences in influenza. This approach has identified H9N2 sequences that have migrated from Asia into British Columbia in Canada and California in the United States to recombine with H5N2. Similarly North American sequences from a wide range of sero-types have been found in Astrakhan H5N1 sequences. These data indicate H5N1 is currently expanding its geographical reach into the Americas. Surveillance by Canada and the United States is lacking, as neither country has detected any H5N1 infections.

 

The monitoring of the movement of these sequences is improved with a robust and current influenza sequence database. The call for researchers to release sequences to a public database was issued in today's Science magazine. WHO maintains a private database with access limited to 15 laboratories. Many important sequences, such as those from human cases in Indonesia or from birds throughout Europe and the Middle East are held in this database until research papers are published, which can be months after sequencing.

 

"It is important to have the sequences available to the entire scientific community", said Recombinomics President, Henry Niman, Ph.D. "H5N1 is traveling and evolving rapidly, and effective monitoring of these changes is most efficient with current data. The WHO consulting labs do not monitor recombination. Recent sequences from China show clear examples of recombination, as noted by the Beijing based submitters of the sequences. These data do not support the WHO's conclusions that H5N1 evolves by random mutation. It is vital that the H5N1 sequences be made available to all researchers for effective monitoring of H5N1as well as for vaccine development."

 

Recombinomics supports the request in today's issue of Science that these sequences should be made public immediately. Recombinomics patent pending technology uses these viral sequences to predict the emergence of new and novel strains via recombination. This approach correctly predicted the recombination between H5N1 and H9N2 in domestic poultry that lead to the acquisition of the hemagglutinin polymorphism S227N, which increased the affinity of the hemagglutinin for human receptors. Similarly a new acquisition, G228S, is predicted via recombination between H5N1 and H1N1 in European swine. These predictions are based upon recent sequence information from the currently circulating H5N1 virus as well as donor sequences in a broad spectrum of influenza sero-types. H5N1 uses homologous recombination to create novel genes

 

About Recombinomics, Inc. -- The Company was founded by Dr. Henry Niman, a former Scripps Institute Assistant Member, based on his pioneering work in the area of viral evolution. Dr. Niman's research identified recombination as the underlying mechanism driving rapid genetic change, allowing him to file a series of patents based on a deep understanding of this paradigm shifting process. Recombinomics is in the process of commercializing its patent-pending approach to significantly improve the standard vaccine development process.

Recombinomics, through its analysis and commentary section of its website (http://www.recombinomics.com ), has been consistently ahead of both the scientific community and government agencies in anticipating the genetic evolution and geographic expansion of H5N1.

 

 

 

Contact Information:

 

Dr. Henry Niman

President

Recombinomics, Inc.

648 Field Club Road,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15238

Tel. 866.973.2662

henry_niman@recombinomics.com

 

 

 

SOURCE Recombinomics Inc.

Web Site: http://www.recombinomics.com