Bird-flu Scare: National Ban On Cockfighting

[george]

BIRD-FLU SCARE: National ban on cockfighting

Herding of ducks also outlawed in 25 provinces after spate of chicken deaths

BANGKOK: -- A temporary nationwide ban on cockfighting has been imposed along with a ban on “mobile” duck breeding in 25 provinces.

The bans are precautionary measures ordered yesterday by the Department of Livestock Development (DLD) to counter the possible outbreak of bird flu

following reports of unusual mass deaths of farm poultry in 12 provinces.

The moves were proposed “in advance” during meetings of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives officials over the past few weeks. DLD director-general Yukhol Limlaemthong said the bans were finally approved yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister Pinij Charusombat.

Three ministries – Interior, Natural Resources and Environment and Public Health – were made jointly responsible for imposing the ban on cockfighting and duck breeding.

Tests are being done on chickens that died in Kalasin, Phetchabun, Loei and Chachoengsao to determine whether their deaths were caused by bird-flu. Results of the laboratory tests are expected to be known within the week.

Tests are also being carried out on samples of carcasses of farm poultry in the eight other provinces, which include Suphan Buri, Pathum Thani, Prachin Buri, Udon Thani, Lampang, Chiang Mai and Lamphun.

In reference to the ban on cockfighting events, Yukhol said fighting roosters and locally-bred chickens were suspected to be primary sources of the disease. Owners of fighting cocks will also be asked

to keep their animals in confinement. And ducks must not be herded around as breeders usually do.

Yukhol said he feared that if the tests indicate bird flu, chicken exports would be halted until at least the end of this year, pending the mandatory 90-day evaluation period required under the World Organisation for Animal Health.

The DLD chief believed that duck breeders in the 25 provinces, which include the 12 provinces where mass poultry deaths have been reported, would comply with the ban. Last year when the first outbreak of bird flu hit the country, duck breeders adhered to bans whenever they were imposed.

--The Nation 2005-07-13

[george]

Bird flu becomes endemic in Thailand: official

BANGKOK: -- The latest outbreak of avian influenza found in central Thailand showed the disease had become endemic in the region, said an official from Public Health Ministry.

The H5N1 virus was detected in the central province of Suphan Buri in every round of X-ray surveillance, newspaper Nation on Tuesday quoted Thawat Suntrajarn, director-general of the Disease Control Department, as saying.

Fresh bird flu cases have been found in the province and hundreds of fowls have been culled, the Agriculture Ministry said on Sunday.

The official assured the public there is no need for panic, forno humans have been infected and the virus has not spread to other areas.

The Disease Control Department would continue surveying the area for 10 days, he added.

Thailand has never been clean of bird flu virus since the beginning of last year, when the first wave of avian influenza hit the kingdom.

Recurrent bird flu outbreak has dealt great impact on the kingdom's poultry industry, which supplied world's fourth largest poultry export shipment.

The latest outbreak also shelved the Agriculture Ministry's campaign to boost Thailand's fresh chicken exports in the second half of the year.

--Agencies/Xinhuanet 2005-07-12

[udon]

I hope my parrot's ok

[John K]

Now it is time for all the Thais that cheated and copied in school who are now in government to cheat and copy their way out of this one.

[brubo1]

I just can't see how countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia etc will ever be able to get on top of this problem for good. Cull EVERY chicken in the country???

[udon]

Ummm, what about migratory birds?

[Thailand]

12 provinces already affected

They kept this one quiet, yet again even more damage to their international reputation, when will they learn!

No need to worry about future international exports of chickens etc, nobody will be buying

[ilyushin]

We were told a few months ago the death tolls would be 7.5 million humans from the next outbreak. Here we are! Guess we had better get ready to deal with the remains of humans along with the fowl. This goes airborne and its all over. Sneeze, cough, etcc will wipe us out. This has no borders nor picks only on people close to birds ( chickens, ducks) so be ready. Not much fun to go out anymore so better stay at home.

Much worse than the officials have indicated.

[kreon]

they're are so slow it takes a few weeks to make-up their mind whether to ban it or not

and last year we were proudly told by our clever government that it would take 3 months to completely eradicate the bird-flu, even though they did not even have a vaccine to do it

yet at the same time experts around the world said that with a proper program, it will take at least 2-years, but of course the thai's know better than that

i've stopped eating chicken and duck in asia a long time age

Edited July 13, 2005 by kreon

[Galong]

National ban on cockfighting??

As Thais are always law-abiding, I'm sure they'll stop cockfighting. I'm sure they'll put what's best for the country ahead of what's fun/profitable for them...

[Maejo Man]

" We were told a few months ago the death tolls would be 7.5 million humans from the next outbreak. "

I must have blinked, as I missed that jem Who told us?

"Much worse than the officials have indicated."

Do you know something that you would like to share with the rest of us poor ill informed unfortunates?

[Harmonica]

i've stopped eating chicken and duck in asia a long time age

Two out of 3 ain't bad, but for a shot at the title give up eating p*ssy too!

[slim]

Without doubt the H5N1 bird flu strain poses the single greatest threat to mankind since the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that killed more people than the Great War.

Somewhere between 20 and 40 million people lost their lives between 1918-1919 (more than in the 4 year Black Death Bubonic Plague of 1347-1351).

The conclusion of the W.H.O. conference on the subject in Kuala Lumpur recently(July 6th) was indeed very scary.

Currently Bird Flu has killed 54 people (of the 100+ people it has infected - a mortality rate of 50%).

54 people out of the entire population of Asia is insignificat and shows how difficult it is to actually contract bird flu but many experts now think its inevitable that someone will contract H5N1 virus whilst carrying a conventional flu virus.

Should the H5N1 virus come into contact with conventional flu virus and mutate to a form that is as virulent as Bird Flu and as spreadable as conventional flu the consequences for the entire world are dire indeed.

Regretably Bird Flu doesn't fly planes into buildings or blow up innocent people on the Underground and no doubt the seriousness of its threat will not be taken seriously enough.

As stated by FAO chief veterinary officer Joseph Domenech

"Avian influenza is not just an Asian problem," Domenech said. "No poultry producing country is safe from the occurrence of the avian influenza as long as there are pockets of infections in Asia."

Domenech told the conference that Asia needs about $100 million US over the next two years to fund a viable program to fight bird flu, but so far only one-tenth that amount has been raised.

[baht&sold]

Point taken. However, I just shrug these things off. Beyond my control and refuse to live in fear of the "news du jour"

While everyone runs about like chickens with their heads cut off, claiming the sky is falling, I'll be at KFC

[ayakiawe]

So yes bird flu comes from factory food farming tech

Go back to the old ways and you will have healthy animals and people too!

And Yes follow the King's Advise... go natural!

Wake up Thialnd before its too late!

[slim]

Point taken. However, I just shrug these things off. Beyond my control and refuse to live in fear of the "news du jour" 

While everyone runs about like chickens with their heads cut off, claiming the sky is falling, I'll be at KFC

I agree - que sera sera - but I think I'd rather have Bird Flu than eat KFC

Krap F*cking Chicken

[chownah]

It is my understanding that no one has been reported as having contracted the bird flu from eating poultry.....all of the cases reported have been from direct contact with live animals. Is this correct?

[toni157]

This may become a real problem in the future and if Bird Flu becomes a pandemic then not eating chicken or duck will not help you much.

My girlfriends family live on a large plot of land in central Bangkok and the older memrs of her family have completely ignored any request to consider killing his precious fighting roosters - he wouldn't even consider it. As usual human nature ensures that his own needs are more important than those of others. But is it just me or does anyone else feel that wealthy Thais have a special "it applies to them - not me" outlook.

[Backpack_thailand]

Point taken. However, I just shrug these things off. Beyond my control and refuse to live in fear of the "news du jour"

While everyone runs about like chickens with their heads cut off, claiming the sky is falling, I'll be at KFC 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Spot On! A bit of "Del Boy French!"

Bonnet de douche Rodney, bonnet de douche!

[slim]

Its surprising how few people realize how you contract Bird Flu.

During the last year's big outbreak in Thailand, my Thai in-laws were horrified that I was taking advantage of all the knocked down price chicken in my local Big C supermarket - this from a rural family who have to knock the chickens and ducks off the dinner table.

You CANNOT catch Bird Flu from eating poultry.

The virus is only caught by coming into contact with the droppings of an infected bird.

[mnoorsapl]

National ban on cockfighting??

As Thais are always law-abiding, I'm sure they'll stop cockfighting.  I'm sure they'll put what's best for the country ahead of what's fun/profitable for them... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

killing 2 birds with 1 stone, me think so. at the same time curb on the illegal gamblings.

[bdenner]

BAN COCKFIGHTING!! Shiite there's another arm of the extended family that will be freeloading off me

[baht&sold]

BAN COCKFIGHTING!! Shiite there's another arm of the extended family that will be freeloading off me

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[astral]

" We were told a few months ago the death tolls would be 7.5 million humans from the next outbreak. "

I must have blinked, as I missed that jem   Who told us?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think it is a WHO projection, based on a real epedemic in the human population.

There was report on CNN or was it the BBC, recently.

Quite horrifying, but I guess the ever growing world population needs culling,

and this is nature's way of dealing with it.

[Thaiquila]

The US program Nightline recently did a whole show on the topic. On it, a very credible world health type person said we are now not talking about a possibility, but a PROBABILITY of a pandemic as early as this fall, and otherwise could be three to five years. She did not give a percentage likelihood, or say it was a CERTAINTY, but this is all very, very grim.

There is work on a vaccine, but there is no way there is going to be anywhere near enough for the whole world.

And if it hits this year, no vaccine at all.

If it hits later, there will a huge mess of triage with the vaccine, and it was suggested that poor countries won't get any.

The implications of all of this are I think way beyond what most of us can digest.

Edited July 13, 2005 by Thaiquila

[tyznd]

Avian Flu Moves

Among Wild Geese

BBC News

7-7-5

An outbreak of avian flu in wild geese in western China has raised fears that the virus responsible could soon spread beyond its Asian stronghold.

Researchers say evidence of the H5N1 pathogen in the geese is a big concern because of the migratory animals' ability to fly huge distances.

Their reports, in the Science and Nature journals, are the first to show viral transmission between wild birds.

Previously, the flu was only seen to move to wild birds from domestic fowl.

World health officials are worried avian influenza virus (AVI) could cause a pandemic of human disease if it ever acquires the ability to pass easily from human to human.

So far, the impact on people has been limited to 54 deaths out of 154 infections in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia - again, after contact with domesticated chickens and other infected food birds.

News that the H5N1 viral strain is now being passed around wild geese makes avian flu even more of a global threat than it already is, the scientists say.

"These birds can fly one thousand miles a day at maximum," explained Yi Guan, of the University of Hong Kong, China.

"This means the virus has the opportunity to expand its distribution to currently virus-free areas," he told BBC News.

Global threat

The reported outbreak was first detected on 30 April in bar-headed geese ( Anser indicus ) at Lake Qinghai, a protected nature reserve in Qinghai Province.

The animals displayed classic symptoms, such as tremors, diarrhoea, head tilt and paralysis.

By 20 May, the outbreak had claimed some 1,500 birds, report Yi Guan and colleagues in Nature; not just bar-headed geese, but great black-headed gulls ( Larus ichthyaetus ) and brown-headed gulls ( Larus brunnicephalus ).

Genetic analysis of the virus extracted from dead birds shows that it is closely related to the strain that has caused human illness in Thailand and Vietnam.

Lake Qinghai is a major breeding centre for migrant birds, say to Jinhua Liu and colleagues in Science magazine. Bar-headed geese are known to move south to Burma and north over the Himalayas to India.

In their report, Liu's team analysed a variety of birds collected from the lake. The scientists managed to isolate four H5N1 virus sub-strains, and tests on mice and chickens showed them to be highly virulent.

Fifteen of the 16 test animals were dead within three days of exposure.

"The occurrence of highly pathogenic H5N1 AIV infection in migrant waterfowl indicates that this virus has the potential to be a global threat," Liu's team write in Science.

Evidence of spread in wild geese means farmers outside of southeast Asia should now be more vigilant for signs of the disease, the research teams say. Avian flu is almost impossible to stamp out once it becomes established in farm poultry populations, they warn.

H5N1 BIRD FLU VIRUS * Principally an avian disease, first seen in humans in Hong Kong, 1997 * Almost all human cases thought to be contracted from birds * Isolated cases of human-to-human transmission in Hong Kong and Vietnam, but none confirmed

[Crushdepth]

So yes bird flu comes from factory food farming tech

Go back to the old ways and you will have healthy animals and people too!

Actually, the virus is resident in the wild bird population, and its always been here (in general, not talking about any particular strain). Farmed birds get it from exposure to wild birds. The way to keep it out of the food chain is to segregate them properly - which usually means factory food farming.

[udon]

Avian Flu Moves

Among Wild Geese

BBC News

7-7-5

An outbreak of avian flu in wild geese in western China has raised fears that the virus responsible could soon spread beyond its Asian stronghold.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks tyznd,

I couldn't remember where I had read it.

[Maejo Man]

" We were told a few months ago the death tolls would be 7.5 million humans from the next outbreak. "

I must have blinked, as I missed that jem   Who told us?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think it is a WHO projection, based on a real epedemic in the human population.

There was report on CNN or was it the BBC, recently.

Quite horrifying, but I guess the ever growing world population needs culling,

and this is nature's way of dealing with it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do you ever think back to your childhood, and wonder why you were so much healthier then? No inbred chickens, or cattle being fed pelletised "other animals" and pizza was a spelling mistake for a city in Italy with a leaning tower. McDonalds were the neighbours across the street, who you never talked to because your parents said they were foriegners, and Tesco had two branches in London!

You caught a cold, and it went in a coupe of days, mumps and scarlet fever were considered near fatal, and your pets seemed to live forever. The dog we had as kids used to come to the pub for a walk with me well into my late teens. Maybe it was the two pints that he consumed there that kept him going.

Have you also noticed how "grannie's old cures" are coming back into fashion as opposed to conventional medicines? When I was young it wasn't the chickens that were doing the culling. Perhaps we have left it just a little too late.....

[Darkling]

I hope my parrot's ok 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Don`t be as sick as will you, if he`s not