If it's the same in the USA as here in the UK, then there are many individuals around who keep chickens, ducks and geese in very small numbers and these tend to roam outside. It's knowing that the message and instructions to isolate such collections, keeping them under cover, could fail to be acknowledged or heard that presents the achilles heel here.

Most UK commercial poultry farmers have too much to lose to ignore government instructions and recommendations - in fact those that normally would have to protect their organic and free range status by allowing their birds to roam have already been given dispensation to keep them under cover without affecting this status - a safeguard to address this otherwise high-risk categorisation requirement.

The 10 second rule is repealed.;)

Between this and the recent mad cow sighting, I can only ask:

How's being vegetarian sound?

;)

A bear and a chicken were arguing in the woods,
Bear "I'm the toughest in the woods I growl and the whole woods shits themselves in fear".

Chicken " That's fuck all,I sneeze and the whole country shits themselves in fear".

:D

It's the same. I've got a flock of chickens here doing the free range thing. I'll have to off the whole bunch if things get ugly. :( This is that weird case where the pathetic chickens stuffed in little cages with their beaks ground is healthier than running around in the grass. We've never had migratory fowl in close proximity so we're probably cool but I'm going to stay educated on it. We already do the barn boots don't leave the farm thing...

The Tower of London Ravens have been moved indoors.

Apparently, if they die the sun sets on the British Empire or something.

I think our current government have already beaten them when it comes to to achieving that

Anyone who is worried about bird flu and who has a domestic cat that they allow to roam out of doors might want to take a lesson from the Tower of London's ravens and, also, confine kitty indoors. Bird flu has already been discovered in the cat-like civet and could easily spread among populations of domestic cats both here and in Europe. I wanted to make my little (well, now Big!) Siamese an indoor cat, but he's quite the sly escape artist and sometimes eludes me to go out on adventures. Yesterday he made an escape and returned with a single downy bird feather stuck to the corner of his mouth. The little rapscallion!

If he starts sneezing, run.

That could just be feathers up his nose.;)

[Tyler Durden voice] Sticking feathers up your butt does not mean you have bird flu [/Tyler Durden voice]

Ref link

I'm pretty close to ordering 4 N100 filter masks just in case. Otherwise, if there were an outbreak, it could be weeks before anything beyond those cheap disposables would be available.

I'm thinking about getting home delivery for beer :smack:

It's called H5N1
 

It is a good thing that governments are taking care to prepare for a possible threat. But then we have to put that threat into perspective. Previous versions of the disease that did pass into to humans were the types H1, H2, and H3. They caused humans to get sick in 1918, 1957, and 1968. What was the solution? Better health practices. Wash hands. Wash down things that people touch. When the epidemic was so catastrophic, people also did not practice these essential cleaning practices.

So where will the disease be a greater problem. Obviously among those who daily work with birds. But also where good health practices are not exercised. The H5 type could be a problem. But moreso, it will show us where we are not down our jobs to stay clean and healthy. That this virus would be any more disastrous than others is mostly about getting people to practice normal precautions.

I've been wondering about this, myself, and I've noted that no media coverage has discussed the sanitation differences between 1918 and today.

An interesting tidbit I gathered from the PBS documentary on the 1918 flu: the reason the most affected people were healthy, young adults was not because the virus somehow targeted these people, but because it was most likely that the elderly had developed a resistance to that strain of flu thanks to an outbreak of a similar flu several decades earlier.