Alarmist Story on Bird Flu in today's Age

[John Leonard <>]

There's an alarmist story on bird-flu trying to tie migratory waders into the H5N1 virus.

Here's a worrying paragraph

But something has changed and it is an ominous development. The
World Health Organisation says some migratory birds now appear to
be directly spreading the H5N1 virus in its highly pathogenic form
over long distances and that further spread to new areas can be
expected. It also says there is considerable circumstantial
evidence to suggest that when they mix with domestic poultry, wild
waterfowl can introduce to farm flocks low pathogenic viruses that
then mutate to the highly pathogenic form, including the H5N1.

It doesn't distinguish between migrating waterfowl, and migrating
waders (shorebirds), both of which have been discussed in previous
paragraphs. A casual reader might think he was talking about waders in
this paragraph.

The author is not a biologist or health expert.

I hope Birds Australia are busy working on a rebuttal to be published in tomorrow's Age.



-- 
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net