Looks Like Pork's Off The Menu

[davidm]

From today's Bangkok Post:

Farm pigs can also pass on flu virus

Aphaluck Bhatiasevi

Pigs which feed on chicken droppings could contract the bird flu virus and pass it on to humans, virologist Prasert Thongcharoen warned.

He was speaking at a special meeting organised by Siriraj Hospital to educate hospital workers and the public about avian influenza.

Dr Prasert, a member of the World Health Organisation's Advisory Panel on Viral Diseases, said when bird flu hit the Netherlands last year, it also infected farm pigs.

``Pigs have their own form of influenza. It is feared that if a pig suffering from its own strain of influenza also becomes infected with bird flu, the viruses could swap genes and become stronger and more resistant to control efforts,'' he said.

Even if they don't get the flu, it's not very comforting to know that pigs are fed chicken shit.

[pnustedt]

From today's Bangkok Post

Just trash it then!

[Guest IT Manager]

I wondered where the pollies were getting their chicken-shit attitudes from... eating pork with the PM.

[Khutan]

Pigs which feed on chicken droppings

That could leave a VERY nasty taste in your mouth

[george]

PM derides doctor over pig comments

BANGKOK: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra fumed yesterday over a doctor’s warning that the birdflu virus could mutate in swine.

He derided the virus expert with a derogatory pronoun prefix – ai.

“Gone too far...it was ai mor [that doc] saying that alone,” a seething Thaksin said when asked about the warning that made yesterday’s headlines.

Dr Prasert Thongcharoen, an internationally recognised Thai virologist who is also a supervisor with the World Health Organisation, warned on Monday about the bird flu mutating in pigs.

Speaking at an academic conference on the epidemic, the doctor said pigs were ideal hosts for mixing and mutating the birdflu virus into a form easily passed between humans.

Thaksin asserted that Prasert’s warning was not supported by sufficient scientific evidence. He called the warning “overly imaginative”.

“Are the doctor and the media going to take any responsibility if the virus does not spread to pigs?” said the premier.

Prasert last Thursday was the first to disclose that a suspected birdflu patient was being treated at Siriraj Hospital, where he works.

The following day, the Public Health Ministry acknowledged two confirmed cases, including Prasert’s patient. On Monday, the patient succumbed to the disease, Thailand’s first official human death from the bird flu.

In response to the PM’s tirade, Prasert insisted he had based his warning completely on information from the WHO.

At the moment, he said, there were continuing reports about influenzavirus infections in pigs in southern China, which could led to mutations of the birdflu virus, a scenario that could lead to a worldwide pandemic.

Pigs are uniquely susceptible to infection from both avian and human viruses, as well as their own swine viruses, and are thus thought to serve as the intermediary for humanavian virus reassortment, according to the University of WisconsinMadison’s School of Veterinary Medicine.

In direct support of this theory, humanavian virus reassortments isolated in pigs in Europe were subsequently detected in Dutch children, said the university’s website.

In addition, reassorted H3N2 and H1N2 viruses containing genes from human, avian and swineinfluenza viruses have been isolated in pigs and people in the United States since 1998.

--------------------------

Dumped ducklings set cat among hens

Residents yesterday came to the rescue of thousands of ducklings after a truck driver dumped them along the roadside in Buri Ram.

Provincial livestock authorities warned the locals not to touch or move the birds lest they catch the avianflu virus. Livestock authorities wanted the young birds quarantined for cholera or bird flu and told residents to stay away from the animals.

The authorities were hunting for the sixwheel truck that jettisoned the potentially dangerous cargo.

Residents of Ban Thaen Phra in Buri Ram’s Lam Plaimat district felt sorry for the 15dayold young abandoned ducklings. Many picked them up, intending to raise them at home.

Sawat Deepan, 48, said he picked up 14 ducklings but the authorities took them. He said he and his wife were afraid of the flu and they burnt the clothing they used to wrap the ducklings in.

He was too afraid to bring the birds into the village and promised to cooperate with the government.

Wisit Sipong, assistant village headman of Ban Thaen Phra, said villagers were frightened after the authorities warned them of the possibility of contracting the flu.

Some of the ducklings were retrieved for flu testing and officials called on residents to surrender the birds, said livestock and breeding authority Ruangsak Lamainin.

A 24hour quarantine point was set up to keep the possibility of bird flu in check.

--The Nation 2004-01-28

[dr_Pat_Pong]

PM derides doctor over pig comments

BANGKOK: Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra fumed yesterday over a doctor’s warning that the birdflu virus could mutate in swine.

He derided the virus expert with a derogatory pronoun prefix – ai.

“Gone too far...it was ai mor [that doc] saying that alone,” a seething Thaksin said when asked about the warning that made yesterday’s headlines.

Dr Prasert Thongcharoen, an internationally recognised Thai virologist who is also a supervisor with the World Health Organisation, warned on Monday about the bird flu mutating in pigs.

Speaking at an academic conference on the epidemic, the doctor said pigs were ideal hosts for mixing and mutating the birdflu virus into a form easily passed between humans.

Thaksin asserted that Prasert’s warning was not supported by sufficient scientific evidence. He called the warning “overly imaginative”.

“Are the doctor and the media going to take any responsibility if the virus does not spread to pigs?” said the premier.

Prasert last Thursday was the first to disclose that a suspected birdflu patient was being treated at Siriraj Hospital, where he works.

The following day, the Public Health Ministry acknowledged two confirmed cases, including Prasert’s patient. On Monday, the patient succumbed to the disease, Thailand’s first official human death from the bird flu.

In response to the PM’s tirade, Prasert insisted he had based his warning completely on information from the WHO.

At the moment, he said, there were continuing reports about influenzavirus infections in pigs in southern China, which could led to mutations of the birdflu virus, a scenario that could lead to a worldwide pandemic.

Pigs are uniquely susceptible to infection from both avian and human viruses, as well as their own swine viruses, and are thus thought to serve as the intermediary for humanavian virus reassortment, according to the University of WisconsinMadison’s School of Veterinary Medicine.

In direct support of this theory, humanavian virus reassortments isolated in pigs in Europe were subsequently detected in Dutch children, said the university’s website.

In addition, reassorted H3N2 and H1N2 viruses containing genes from human, avian and swineinfluenza viruses have been isolated in pigs and people in the United States since 1998.

--------------------------

Dumped ducklings set cat among hens

Residents yesterday came to the rescue of thousands of ducklings after a truck driver dumped them along the roadside in Buri Ram.

Provincial livestock authorities warned the locals not to touch or move the birds lest they catch the avianflu virus. Livestock authorities wanted the young birds quarantined for cholera or bird flu and told residents to stay away from the animals.

The authorities were hunting for the sixwheel truck that jettisoned the potentially dangerous cargo.

Residents of Ban Thaen Phra in Buri Ram’s Lam Plaimat district felt sorry for the 15dayold young abandoned ducklings. Many picked them up, intending to raise them at home.

Sawat Deepan, 48, said he picked up 14 ducklings but the authorities took them. He said he and his wife were afraid of the flu and they burnt the clothing they used to wrap the ducklings in.

He was too afraid to bring the birds into the village and promised to cooperate with the government.

Wisit Sipong, assistant village headman of Ban Thaen Phra, said villagers were frightened after the authorities warned them of the possibility of contracting the flu.

Some of the ducklings were retrieved for flu testing and officials called on residents to surrender the birds, said livestock and breeding authority Ruangsak Lamainin.

A 24hour quarantine point was set up to keep the possibility of bird flu in check.

--The Nation 2004-01-28

The " Premier " opens his mouth without engaging his brain. Ai Premier

[Thailand]

Swine flu

Chicken flu

Bird flu mad cow disease

Whats next - Lamb flu, mad lamb disease, Fish flu, mad fish disease TOT

None of these will happen in Thailand!

[george]

Chicken is defintively off the menu...

Kentucky Fried Fish?

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The bird flu rampaging across Asia, killing chickens and humans alike, is starting to take the C out of KFC.

In Vietnam, the U.S. fast food chain known for its fried chicken said Tuesday it had closed almost all its outlets while it switched to a fish menu, as customers were unwilling to tuck in to chicken.

Eight KFC restaurants were shut Monday in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's commercial center, which has banned the sale of poultry and culled more than two million chickens.

"It has been very hard for us," Nguyen Chi Kien, KFC's Vietnam deputy country director, told Reuters.

In Bangkok, normally busy KFC restaurants were almost empty at lunchtime, even though health officials said well-cooked meat represented no risk. Shares in KFC's Malaysian franchisee fell.

KFC's Web Site says that out of 12,500 outlets globally it has more than 3,000 restaurants in Asia, around one third of those being in Japan. There are more than 900 outlets in China and Hong Kong, while Thailand and Malaysia account for just over 300 each.

Kien said KFC, a subsidiary of New York-listed Yum Brands Inc, would reopen its Vietnamese restaurants at the end of this week, offering fish burgers.

KFC, one of the communist country's few international fast food chains, along with the Philippines' Jollibee Foods Corp, operates nine restaurants in southern Vietnam.

Chicken has also disappeared from posh restaurants, hotels and homes in big cities in the Southeast Asian nation but is still widely available in the countryside and at street stalls.

As bird flu was confirmed in nine countries and claimed its eighth human life -- a seven-year-old Thai boy -- KFC Vietnam said it might import frozen chickens from North America to replace local birds, which the government is culling.

SURVIVE A FAT FRIER?

"I'd never even thought about it but if you'd asked me before I came in, I definitely would not have done," said one expatriate office worker in Bangkok. "Then again, how can any virus survive going through a deep fat fryer?"

A KFC spokeswoman declined to comment on any sales impact, although the chain's main Thai competitor, Chester's Grill, admitted sales had been hit.

"Our sales have dropped between 10 to 15 percent since the outbreak," said Joseph Lau, president of the Global Kitchen, which owns Chester's Grill.

Chicken would stay on the menu, Lau said, but the restaurant would add fish, shrimp and seafood dishes for customers worried about eating poultry, he said.

Shares in Malaysia's KFC Holdings (Malaysia) Bhd slipped 1.4 percent on the Kuala Lumpur bourse on fears over bird flu.

In the Philippines, so far unaffected by the outbreak, fried chicken sales had held up, said Ronnie Areglado, a store manager of a KFC outlet in Manila's business district.

"Business is normal. Our sales remained steady," he told Reuters. KFC has 130 outlets in the Philippines.

--Reuters 2004-01-28

[the gentleman]

Swine flu

Chicken flu

Bird flu mad cow disease

Whats next - Lamb flu, mad lamb disease, Fish flu, mad fish disease TOT

None of these will happen in Thailand!

Dont forget the prawns from farms - we all will have to become vegans.

[plachon]

Swine flu

Chicken flu

Bird flu mad cow disease

Whats next - Lamb flu, mad lamb disease, Fish flu, mad fish disease TOT

None of these will happen in Thailand!

Dont forget the prawns from farms - we all will have to become vegans.

No Gent, no need for such extremes. Just insist on buying free range meat products and preferably as close as possible to the point of production. We generally buy our free range chickens directly from the grower and the only time we eat mass produced intensively-raised chickens is in restaurants, where there's not way of knowing its origin. Under no circumstances buy poultry that have come from the big boys of the business, like CP, unless you want a future that is full of epidemic outbreaks and severely decimatated environmental conditions. In other words, don't live in cities, raise as much of your own food as possible and be a pro-active knowledgable consumer. Impossible for most who fail to see the connections between what we eat and what we are.

[pnustedt]

we all will have to become vegans.

But did you know that if you fry processed starches in oil (as in potatoe crisps) you can create carcenogins which give you cancer. Even over heating a Teflon coated pan can poison you!

Vegetables nowadays are sprayed with insecticides and fertilizers which contain dioxins - or why not give GM engineered crops a try? If you know which is which that is!

Oh - and don't forget to wash your hands! - if the water is safe!

I'm off to KFC for lunch!

[plachon]

Enjoy those bird flu-tainted carcinogens from the home of real food, Pneu. Me, I'm off for some home baked wholewheat bread and free-range egg, homegrown toms and pickle (homemade, naturally) sarnies. Bon appetit!

[dkstoney]

People who user computers shouldn't talk about saving the environment or pretending they're concerned about ANYONE'S health.

[Jeff1]

I just knew that pig's would be next.

No meat = im dead.

Good thing that there's lot's of dogs around. Has anyone heard of dog flu ?

" fish flu " that cracked me up

[plachon]

People who user computers shouldn't talk about saving the environment or pretending they're concerned about ANYONE'S health.

Pray, explain yourself Mr Stoney?

[p_brownstone]

Whilst I despise Taksin and his megalomaniac abilities to be expert on everything whilst listening to no-one, I have to remember that Dr Prasert Thongcharoen is one of the main proponents of an ongoing AIDS vaccine experiment in Thailand using a combination of two drugs - each of which has been proved to be ineffective by itself. This experiment has been roundly critisised by major AIDS experts as unnecessary and pointless, however Dr Prasert and his colleagues insist on continuing with the project.

[Guest IT Manager]

People who user computers shouldn't talk about saving the environment or pretending they're concerned about ANYONE'S health.

I think it is quite wonderful what you can do with a damp piece of paper with writing on it, tied to a long fishing line, and flicked at high speed all round the country onto everyones monitor, so everyone can see it, then calling George and asking him to give you credit for 16 posts.

Alternatively, I wonder if you are geeing the rest of us up a bit dkstoney.

[pnustedt]

Me, I'm off for some home baked wholewheat bread and free-range egg, homegrown toms and pickle (homemade, naturally) sarnies. Bon appetit! 

I bet the bread was baked on an alluminium tray (gives Alzheimers) the wheat was genetically modified, the tomatoes contain dioxins from the fertilizers, the egg contains the salmonella bacteria - hope the pickles are OK!

[george]

I just found this little snippet of information on the net. It's quite thought-provoking.

"Perhaps the most remarkable example of integrated biosystem today is practiced in Southeast Asia. In this region a type of farming has developed that relies largely or mostly on wastes to feed animals. In a typical arrangement, poultry cages are set above the pigpens so that the poultry droppings fall directly into the pens to be eaten by the pigs. The pigpens are, in turn, built above a fishpond so that the fish eat the pig dung. The bodies of dead poultry and pigs are rendered in vats. The resulting solid material is fed to the fish, while the liquid slurry is used in an anaerobic reactor that generates energy to heat the vats and light the farm buildings. The fishponds must be cleaned periodically, which allows the collection of sediments rich with fertilizer from the fish droppings. This type of farming is common in Thailand, China, Korea, and Vietnam. "

[pal78]

" fish flu " that cracked me up

Yeah, but how would we know if the fish had a cold? Better not to take the risk I think. I'm off raw fish.

[Guest IT Manager]

I am a bit concerned about the Larb Muu on Sunday... should I be concerned, Doctor? Or is it all just a pig in a chook run.

Signed

A cackler

[the gentleman]

I just found this little snippet of information on the net. It's quite thought-provoking.

"Perhaps the most remarkable example of integrated biosystem today is practiced in Southeast Asia. In this region a type of farming has developed that relies largely or mostly on wastes to feed animals. In a typical arrangement, poultry cages are set above the pigpens so that the poultry droppings fall directly into the pens to be eaten by the pigs. The pigpens are, in turn, built above a fishpond so that the fish eat the pig dung. The bodies of dead poultry and pigs are rendered in vats. The resulting solid material is fed to the fish, while the liquid slurry is used in an anaerobic reactor that generates energy to heat the vats and light the farm buildings. The fishponds must be cleaned periodically, which allows the collection of sediments rich with fertilizer from the fish droppings. This type of farming is common in Thailand, China, Korea, and Vietnam. "

If the vegies are sprayed with "cancer", the pots we cook in give us "cancer", every meat is going to kill us - we might as well hang aroung the hospital and eat tumors!

I am off to the Phuket International Hospital for a buffet

[huski]

"Perhaps the most remarkable example of integrated biosystem today is practiced in Southeast Asia. In this region a type of farming has developed that relies largely or mostly on wastes to feed animals. In a typical arrangement, poultry cages are set above the pigpens so that the poultry droppings fall directly into the pens to be eaten by the pigs. The pigpens are, in turn, built above a fishpond so that the fish eat the pig dung. The bodies of dead poultry and pigs are rendered in vats. The resulting solid material is fed to the fish, while the liquid slurry is used in an anaerobic reactor that generates energy to heat the vats and light the farm buildings. The fishponds must be cleaned periodically, which allows the collection of sediments rich with fertilizer from the fish droppings.

This type of farming is common in Thailand, China, Korea, and Vietnam. "

You mean this type of politics is common in Thailand, as Thaksin is basically lower than pond scum.

[Jeff1]

To pal78,

Thats easy, it's the fish with the wet nose

[dr_Pat_Pong]

I am a bit concerned about the Larb Muu on Sunday... should I be concerned, Doctor? Or is it all just a pig in a chook run.

Signed

A cackler

A pig in a poke IT...eat only yer veggies ( washed down with grape juice )

[plachon]

Me, I'm off for some home baked wholewheat bread and free-range egg, homegrown toms and pickle (homemade, naturally) sarnies. Bon appetit! 

I bet the bread was baked on an alluminium tray (gives Alzheimers) the wheat was genetically modified, the tomatoes contain dioxins from the fertilizers, the egg contains the salmonella bacteria - hope the pickles are OK!

Was going to answer you Pneu, but couldn't remember what the question was. Which reminds me, I must remember to get the wife to change those darned Al baking trays soon.

That's better............(after some organic Lao coffee)........it's coming back to me.

Outside chance the flour's from GM wheat; the toms are grown organically (compost and poo mixture); dioxins are NOT found in fertiliser, but some pesticides, commonly found in Thailand (beware all veggies in the market, folks!); and as Eggwina Currie would happily tell anyone who cared to listen back then - cooking kills salmonella stone dead (like her political career after that blunder). And the pickle, more of a chutney I guess, is sublime. Come over and get a jar sometime.

How was the Kentucky Fried Cack by the way?

[pnustedt]

How was the Kentucky Fried Cack by the way?

Pretty good tks - only place in town without a queu!

[Maverick]

People who user computers shouldn't talk about saving the environment or pretending they're concerned about ANYONE'S health.

Surely this isnt a serious contribution?

[pnustedt]

Don't overdo the veg's

Couldn't get the photo on here but go to my personal profile if you want to see what a vegie diet can do for you!

[Up2U]

The way I look at it is :

If I'm chatting up a chick, or pulling a bird, and I want to pork her, will I now have to use two condoms, or three?