At 07:38 AM 21/01/2004 +1100, you wrote:
I was minding my own business, listening to ABC News Radio this morning,
when a story arose on avian flu and its potential to inflict more harm
than SARS. The story then reached the realms of the idiotic. A veterinary
officer in Qld claimed we could have this passed on to Australians and
therefore humans by migratory birds. Furthermore, the poultry spokesperson
interviewed seemed to concur. I swallowed hard, fearing those dangerous
Red Necked Stints coming out of Asia& the new Yellow Peril! Is our
paranoia with no limits?
Brian Everingham
Hi Brian and others
While I'm sure there is no need for paranoia, there are interesting links
between wild birds, poultry and humans which shouldn't be totally
dismissed.
I had slight connection with this some years ago when I helped a
post-doctoral researcher investigate the links
between outbreaks in poultry and wild birds (It was funded by the poultry
industry). Looking at the range of possible
bird links to poultry we thought that waterfowl and pigeons and doves might
be the best focus for such links. Both
pigeons and doves and some waterfowl (Plumed Whistle Ducks, for example)
will feed on spilt grain near poultry sheds.
We started a program of capture, banding, bleeding and release of these
birds at UQ's Pinjarra Hills (near Brisbane).
The early results were promising, in that some of the wild birds showed
identical antibodies to those involved in
poultry outbreaks. (I know v. little about the virology, this was
Christine's field, but I understand that avian flu,
like human flu, has a great variety of different "types").
The next stage would have been to look at waders but unfortunately our
funding was cut and Christine moved on to
human epidemiology where the funding is better and more secure.
As you correctly point out any direct links between Red-necked Stints and
the vast majority of humans would be very tenuous
but there are possible links between waders, waterfowl, poultry and humans.
Cheers
Peter
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