Avian Influenza; is it gone? I haven't heard anything of it for a long time.

It's never been a major concern. It's just been over-exaggerated by the media, like SARS.
All it did was make you sick if you ate undercooked poultry (as if it wasn't the case before).
It just got major coverage because they played on the card that it would eventually mutate somehow and affect humans by air. Which didn't happened and never happened when it occured in the past (WW1).

If you check the total mortality for bird flu, I doubt that it has yet exceeded 500. If you check the "normal" mortality for "normal" flu in Europe, you will find figure varying between 200,000 and 300,000 per year.

On this basis, the present form of bird flu has less impact than many other rare, exotic diseases such as Ebola.

It is true that all flu starts as avian flu [There is evidence of other reservoirs in the tropics that might be counted as separate] and that mutation is required to move it into the general human population. In that sense, avian flu is potentially dangerous--but this has always been a danger.

The importance here is that it is presently deadly to the chickens that we use in agriculture in the developed world. The reason is simple: these chickens are VERY highly selected. This process concentrates all the desired genes for fast growth, efficient conversion etc--BUT it reduces the genetic variation. Given that a single rooster can become the parent of several million chicks, this lack of variation is easy to understand.

It is easier for the "powers that be" to command the slaughter of asian and african chickens on the grounds of public health than to admit that they are dying to protect the factory chickens.

One-line summary: it is a confidence trick.

Melek
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