Azerbijian

Vorobei wrote: Richard Thomas says that the bird flu spread out of China to the West in the summer. This was due to trade, not migrating birds. Birds don't fly west from China in the summer:

Obviously, the man is one of the world's GREATEST IDIOTS.  Bird Flu spread out from Qinghai Lakes in all directions, not just west.  If the man was intelligent enough to follow the actual reports of the spread, He'd have found that it spread north just as far as it spread west in the first two months after Qinghai.

Are you familiar with this site that shows the dead cattle? There are pricing wars going on for beef right now. It is possible the picture/story are part of some price war propaganda. I don't know, but such things happen.

I notice the cattle story is from November. In those countries farm animals are sometimes poisoned by indstrial toxins or by eating grain infected with ergot. Cattle get ergot pretty easily. Maybe this was gangrenous ergot. Look up cattle and ergot.

Cattle get gangrene on their extremeties--hooves, ears, legs.

It happens in the US that 100s of cows die from ergot or other micotoxins.
    

Edited by Vorobei - April 08 2006 at 10:27am

fluprepper wrote: The USA still use poultry manure litter and feathers in fish food. It has been banned in Britain and Canada. It is only safe when heat treated for something like 3 hours at a high temperature. This is not followed of course. I posted an article a while back about it. They said it is a good way to recycle and what else could they do with all that waste! I could give them a few ideas!

Holy Cow! Thanks for the information about manure and feathers. Here is something to sleep on, when thinking about those poor Azeri kids plucking down for the Chinese pillow makers.

F.Y.I. Down is commonly used to make pillows by people in underdeveloped nations, for use in their own homes . I know, I sleep under a down cover with feathers that were hand-plucked many years ago, from such a country.



http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1:46450319/EIDER+DOWN+GOODS+OU TPUT+OCCUPIES+OVER+70%25+OF+THE+GLOBAL+TOTAL+NUMBER.html?ref id=ency_botnm
    
   

Edited by Rick - April 08 2006 at 11:09am

"those stripes" are wound closure strips that hold open wounds together to replace sutures.  They help to reduce scarring.  I had them on my neck for my cervical diskectomy.  You can get them in any pharmacy.  They're hourglass-shaped bandaids.

Here is an interesting recent article that also expresses the idea that the bird flu is not primarily spreading through the migration of wild birds.
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/3/28/lifefocus/13769189&sec=lifefocus

Outbreak pattern

In 2004, several dead open-bill storks in Thailand tested positive for H5N1, triggering accusations against migratory birds. But the species had migrated from Bangladesh and India – both free of the bird flu then. Further scrutiny revealed that the birds had fed in fields within one of Thailand’s worst-hit bird flu region. Hence, the storks were not the source of the virus but the victims.

The wild birds-are-to-blame theory gathered momentum when some 6,000 wild birds, mostly bar-headed geese but also gulls, shelducks and cormorants, died of the virus in Qinghai Lake, north-west China in 2005.

Wild bird deaths were subsequently reported from Kazakhstan, Lake Erhel in Mongolia, Romania and Croatia. The virus genotypes found in these countries were almost identical to those of dead birds at Qinghai Lake. This further fuelled the wild bird theory.

However, BirdLife International communications manager Dr Richard Thomas disputes claims that the geese from China had spread the virus to Europe. “No species migrates west from Qinghai to Eastern Europe. When plotted, the pattern of outbreaks follows major road and rail routes, not flyways.”

Investigation found the strain in the geese to be linked to a poultry outbreak in southern China. Furthermore, the wild bird deaths in Qinghai and those in Lake Erhel occurred outside of migration time. So poultry infection cannot be ruled out."

Richard Thomas points out that the wild birds infected so far are often scavengers or water birds that are near farms:

"Three types of wild bird species have been involved in outbreaks so far. They are the scavenging species (crows and magpies), species that often feed and scavenge in waterways near towns and farms (herons, egrets and gulls) and colonially-nesting or flocking waterfowl that feed in water bodies or in nearby farmland."

This is a very interesting article.

Here is the English version of an Azerbaijani online-newspaper. http://www.today.az/

There is also a Russian-language version, but I don't know if the news would be exactly the same or not. I will look. www.day.az/

If you can learn to use the search features for www.rferl.org they have good links but also analysis by experts and background. The media in these countries is controlled so you have to know the agendas.

HEre is what the official Azerbaijani Press Agency is saying.

Under the communists, the Former Soviet Union had a pretty good system for controlling Bubonic plague, which is endemic in parts the FSU. It was heavy-handed, but it worked. I don't know if this kind of public health system is in place now in these new governments. The Russians knew what do do about these animal-borne epidemics.

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=8209

Diagnostic examinations on 4464 samples conducted in Veterinary Laboratory of Republic in case of bird flu

[ 09 Apr. 2006 14:40 ]

The State Veterinary Service (SVS) under the Ministry of Agriculture spread information on the results of the bird flu examinations conducted in 2005-2006.

The information says that by April 4, diagnostic examinations on 4464 samples, including samples taken from 3463 poultries, 998 wild birds, and 3 other animals were implemented in the Veterinary Laboratory of the Republic together with other state organizations. The examinations revealed separate forms of bird flu in 14 poultries, 20 wild birds, and 1 dog. As a result of the examinations, H5N1 form of the virus was detected in 7 wild birds among 1236 birds, and H5 form in 1 dog taken from Baku city, H5N1 form in 2 wild birds among 248 birds taken from Absheron region. APA was informed about it from the press centre of SVS.
Besides, samples of 1654 birds taken from poultry-breeding factories were examined in case of bird flu in the Veterinary Laboratory of the Republic. The examinations revealed H5N1 form of the virus in the samples of 3 poultries taken from the Gilazi poultry-keeping factory, H5N1 form in 3 poultries and H5N2 form in 2 poultries taken from the Bilasuvar poultry-keeping factory, and H5 form in 3 poultries taken from the Arka poultry-keeping enterprise. “In parallel with these samples, blood and pathological samples taken from all regions of the republic, national parks, territories temporarily settled by migratory birds were also examined in case of bird flue. These examinations revealed H5N1 form of the virus in 1 wild bird among 121 samples taken from Shamakhi region, 1 wild bird among 22 samples taken from Ganja city, 1 wild bird among 24 samples taken from Samukh region, 1 wild bird among 3 samples taken from Ali Bayramli region, H5 form in 1 wild bird among 13 samples taken from Aghstafa region, H5N3 form in 6 wild birds among 47 samples taken from Beilagan region, H5N1 form in 1 poultry and H5 form in 1 poultry among 17 samples taken from Fuzuli region, H5N1 form in 1 poultry among 7 samples taken from Aghdam region”, - the information says.
SVS also notes that veterinary-quarantine measures and necessary disinfection were implemented in the territories with bird flu virus detected among poultry. As of today, quarantine measures were carried out in all territories except Benovsheler settlement of Aghdam region. /APA/