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Maciamo
Feb 29, 2004, 12:38
BBC News : Japan reports third bird flu case (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3519213.stm)


The agriculture ministry in Japan has confirmed a third case of the bird flu virus at a farm in Kyoto.
Officials said more than 60,000 chickens have died at the farm in the past week.


Ten Asian countries have so far been affected by bird flu, with at least 22 people killed in Vietnam and Thailand.

Japan had hoped to declare itself free of the virus, after gong almost a month without any new cases, since the first outbreak in mid-January.
But it has now suffered two more outbreaks, and there is a fourths suspected case under investigation in central Nagano province.

Animal experts meeting in Bangkok to discuss combating the disease said it would cost the minimum of $500m to stamp bird flu out in Asia and restock the region's poultry flock.


Although previous bird flu outbreaks in Europe and the United States took six months to be wiped out, in Asia it is proving difficult despite massive culling.

Animal health officials expect it will take at least a year, or perhaps longer before Asia is free of the disease.

"If there is no change in the intensity of the campaign and there is no international mobilisation to help the countries, it will take several years," said the head of the FAO's Animal Health Service, Joseph Domenech.

kirei_na_me
Feb 29, 2004, 23:06
More on this:

60 chickens shipped from Hyogo slaughterhouse put on market (http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20040229046)


KYOTO, Feb. 29, Kyodo - Meat from 60 chickens shipped by a Hyogo Prefecture slaughterhouse, where preliminary tests found live chickens there were positive for the bird flu virus, had gone on the market and some was used to make broth at an Osaka restaurant, local governments in western Japan said Sunday.

Kyoto farm starts destroying chickens following order (http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20040229070)


A farm in Kyoto Prefecture where tens of thousands of chickens have died in 10 days following an outbreak of avian influenza started destroying the remaining birds Sunday immediately after it received an order from the prefectural government based on the livestock infection prevention law.

Bird flu outbreak raises fears of chicken consumers (http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200402/29/20040229p2a00m0dm008000c.html)


Revelations that some chickens shipped by a Kyoto Prefecture poultry farm to Hyogo Prefecture may have been infected with bird flu virus have raised concern among chicken processing and sales companies about a sharp decline in chicken meat consumption.

Mandylion
Mar 1, 2004, 10:01
So cooking doesn't kill the virus? I have noticed a lot of talk about the virus, but very little about how it is spread - close contact with living chickens? Close contact with any chicken product? Anyone got any good links?

BSE in meat, mercury in the fish, now chicken viruses. Pretty soon we will all be vegetarian. I'd invest in soybeans...

kirei_na_me
Mar 1, 2004, 10:08
No kidding, Mandylion! I'm feeling the same way.

And I heard that avian flu can be killed when the meat is fully cooked?

Here's an avian flu fact sheet from the WHO:

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2004_01_15/en/

Mandylion
Mar 1, 2004, 10:40
Great! Thanks for the link.

neko_girl22
Mar 1, 2004, 11:07
it's pretty scary.... They kept it quite in Kyoto for a while, so who knows where else it is? For all I know it could already be here in Kagoshima... I used to love torizashi - raw chicken sashimi- but I don't eat that anymore :( On my shokuji ryoho chicken breast was the only flesh I could eat, but I think I'll stick to seafood and veges now...

Maciamo
Mar 1, 2004, 11:56
The chicken flu virus should die easily when cooked at high enough temperature. When we have a flu, our body warms up to kill the virus and we have fever. The danger for humans with chicken flu is that chickens have a higher body temperature (about 42 degree, I think), which means that if the virus doesn't die at 42, we will die before it.

At least, we know when we are contaminated, and if we survive the flu, we should be immunised. BSE is much scarier. Not only is there no remedy and no chance to survive, the virus doesn't die when meat is cooked and, like AIDS, you can be infected and not know it for years, as the incubation period can be up to 20 years. In other words, we could all already have BSE without knowing it. Infected cows have been analysed and the virus passed undetected, as a simple blood test is not sufficient. Like AIDS, the virus is undetectable during the first few months of contamination (about 6 months ?). That is the reason I don't trust even th so-called "tested" meat, as cows used for beef die to young to know if they have BSE or not. Last but not least, BSE makes the brain gradually become lile a sponge, and the person looses their memory day after day before dying several months later. At least with a flu one dies within a few days, without having to suffer 1000 pains.

As BSE and AIDS are so similar, I don't eat beef anymore and would like packets and wrappings to show if a product contains beef (like ramen, kare-, etc in Japan). But they don't have to write it if it's made of beef fat or bones. Eating beef has become as scary as unprotected sex with a total stranger picked at a nightclub. :( Ahh, the pleasure of flesh ! Why does it have to become a sin ! :D

Hachiko
Mar 1, 2004, 12:05
Eating beef has become as scary as unprotected sex with a total stranger picked at a nightclub. :( Ahh, the pleasure of flesh ! Why does it have to become a sin ! :D

That's why we have these things called "abstinence" and "vegetarianism," Maciamo. :smug:

kirei_na_me
Mar 1, 2004, 12:12
That's why we have these things called "abstinence" and "vegetarianism," Maciamo. :smug:

How boring... :sleep:

Hachiko
Mar 1, 2004, 12:17
How boring... :sleep:

Well, kirei, praticing either or is better than having to suffer from STDs and/or contaminated meat...even though I admit, I'm a semi-vegetarian. Didn't suffer from bird flu and/or mad cow disease, though...and if I am going to get a partner, I will have to make sure, through a process the people of Generations Y [and soon, Z] calls, "going steady," that she is in good health, and has no STDs whatsoever. :smug:

kirei_na_me
Mar 1, 2004, 12:19
Uh, yeah, Hachiko....I think I'm old enough to know that by now.

Just being silly...

Hachiko
Mar 1, 2004, 12:21
Uh, yeah, Hachiko....I think I'm old enough to know that by now.

Just being silly...

Point well taken.

kirei_na_me
Mar 8, 2004, 20:53
Top exec of bird flu-hit farm in Kyoto Pref., wife hang selves (http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20040308027)


KOBE, March 8, Kyodo - (EDS: ADDING DROPPED WORDS IN 3RD PARA)
The top executive of the company running the Funai chicken farm, blamed for a delay in alerting authorities about an outbreak of bird flu, in Tamba, Kyoto Prefecture, and his wife were found to have hanged themselves Monday morning, police said.

Uncle Frank
Mar 9, 2004, 01:01
Do birds with the flu eat chicken soup to feel better?
How do they blow their beak without pecking holes in the tissues?

Frank

:mad:

Hachiko
Mar 9, 2004, 02:47
Do birds with the flu eat chicken soup to feel better?
How do they blow their beak without pecking holes in the tissues?

Frank

:mad:

Birds don't each chicken soup to feel better. They are slaughtered.

Here's the answer to the second question:


Within a country, the disease spreads easily from farm to farm. Large amounts of virus are secreted in bird droppings, contaminating dust and soil. Airborne virus can spread the disease from bird to bird, causing infection when the virus is inhaled. Contaminated equipment, vehicles, feed, cages or clothing � especially shoes � can carry the virus from farm to farm. The virus can also be carried on the feet and bodies of animals, such as rodents, which act as 杜echanical vectors� for spreading the disease. Limited evidence suggests that flies can also act as mechanical vectors.

Droppings from infected wild birds can introduce the virus into both commercial and backyard poultry flocks. The risk that infection will be transmitted from wild birds to domestic poultry is greatest where domestic birds roam freely, share a water supply with wild birds, or use a water supply that might become contaminated by droppings from infected wild-bird carriers.

So called 努et� markets, where live birds are sold under crowded and sometimes unsanitary conditions, can be another source of spread.


Courtesy of the WHO (http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/avian_faqs/en/)

名無し
Mar 31, 2004, 22:33
Followup Articles: Yomiuri (http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20040401wo21.htm) Mainichi (http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200403/31/20040331p2a00m0dm003003c.html)

Asada Farm (http://www.asada-egg.co.jp/)

名無し
Apr 30, 2004, 13:33
Chicken Farm Operator in Bird Flu Scandal Shuts Down (http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20040430114)

名無し
Aug 11, 2004, 02:03
Farm Owner Given Suspended Prison Term over Bird Flu Outbreak (http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20040810089) (Kyodo)

Poultry Farm President Evades Jail over Bird-Flu Cover-up (http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200408/10/20040810p2a00m0dm006000c.html) (Mainichi)

名無し
Dec 18, 2004, 22:18
5 May Have Been Infected with Bird Flu in Kyoto Pref. (http://home.kyodo.co.jp/all/display.jsp?an=20041218006)