http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=8&theme=&usrsess=1&id=128044

CHINA DEVELOPS BIRD FLU VACCINE

BEIJING, Aug. 28: Chinese scientists today claimed success in developing an "effective and safe" vaccine for human use against the deadly H5N1 human bird flu, which has already claimed 14 lives in the
country.

Preliminary clinical tests show that a bird flu vaccine for human use developed by Chinese researchers is safe and effective, they said.

The vaccine was jointly developed by China's ministry of science and technology, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and Beijing Sinovac Biotech Co ~ a Beijing-based pharmaceutical company.

Researchers said the first phase of clinical trials has proved the vaccine is safe and effective for humans.

Six volunteers took part in the clinical tests last November at the Beijing China-Japan Friendship Hospital, after the state food and drug administration granted the vaccine developers the green light for the trials, ***Xinhua news agency reported.

Results from the first phase, which ended in June, showed that the four antigens worked at different levels in stimulating the production of antibodies, according to the company.

It said the 10 microgram dosage of the vaccine proved most effective, stimulating 78.3 per cent protective antibodies, exceeding the European Union standard of 70 per cent for a flu vaccine.

The 120 participants who were vaccinated have shown no serious adverse reactions, researchers said. Blood tests and urine tests all indicate that the vaccine is safe for human use.

The vaccine was developed from the virus's NIBRG-14 strain which was provided by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and protects against the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza. The vaccine can be mass-produced, researchers said.

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease, but experts fear that the H5N1 virus could mutate into a form that could pass easily among humans.

The virus has killed 14 people in China since 2003. China is one of the worst-hit nations by the disease which has also led to culling of over 25 million poultry.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ARTICLE STATES THAT ONLY FOURTEEN PEOPLE HAVE DIED IN CHINA SINCE 2003 EVEN THOUGH IT'S ONE OF THE WORST HIT COUNTRIES!! IF THIS VACCINE REALLY WORKS...NO MORE EXCUSE FOR USING BIRD FLU TO SCARE PEOPLE INTO THE NAIS!

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Fowl-Play-in-Bird-Flu.php

FOWL PLAY IN BIRD FLU

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT WILD MIGRATING BIRDS MIXING WITH BACKYARD FLOCKS SPREADS BIRD FLU. TRANSNATIONAL FACTORY FARMS AND THE GLOBALISED TRADE IN POULTRY PRODUCTS ARE TO BLAME.

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
Sources for this report are available in the ISIS members site. Full details here

Bird flu scare hurts the poultry industry
The European Union is set to approve special funding for poultry farmers suffering from falling prices and demand as the spread of the deadly H5N1 bird flu scares consumers away from chicken, turkey and other fowl [1]. Some 320 000 tonnes of unmarketable poultry meat are in cold storage across the 25 nation EU. Prices have fallen by 13 percent on average, but some countries are harder hit than others. Consumption of poultry products is down 5 percent in Denmark and Finland, but as much as 40 percent in Cyprus, 50 percent in Italy and 70 percent in Greece.

Germany has 70 000 tonnes of poultry products in storage, and estimates its sector has suffered damage of around 150 million euros from falling demand and the cost of culling birds. France with 40 000 tonnes in surplus stocks estimates it loses 31.9 million euros a month.

Wild birds to blame?
Bird flu is said to have spread from Asia to Europe in migrating wild birds. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) stated in November 2005 [2]: “The movement of migratory birds has caused outbreaks to emerge in several countries and regions simultaneously.”

The first infection of commercial stocks was found on a French turkey farm in March 2006. The EU has ordered commercial stocks to stay inside or be inoculated, and some 45 countries have issued full or partial bans on poultry imports from France [1].

Meanwhile a fourth Afghan province, Kapisa, has been hit [3]. The virus had been found already in samples from birds in Kabul, Logar and Nangarhar provinces. There are strong suspicions that two other provinces, Laghman and Parwan, are also affected. Afghanistan is on the migration route for several species of wild birds. Poultry have been culled and quarantine measures introduced in affected areas.

Nineteen African nations held a five-day conference towards the end of April 2006 to discuss how they should prepare for a possible deadly outbreak of bird flu [4]. Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Egypt and Burkina Faso are the five African countries with confirmed H5N1 bird flu.

H5N1 has forced the slaughter of 200 million birds so far, as the disease spread from Asia to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Late last year, thousands of migratory birds mysteriously dropped dead in central Malawi, though tests proved negative for H5N1. But the alarm has already hurt the poultry industry in Malawi, with most importers cancelling orders.

While scientists also say that wild birds are spreading the deadly bird flu, there are strong dissenting voices. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), for example, told the BBC that the trade in birds and the movement of poultry products is a more likely cause [5]. Significantly, there are no migration routes that would take birds from China to Turkey at this time of the year.

There is also little direct evidence that migratory birds carry and transmit H5N1. FAO in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO) had admitted in May 2005 [6], “To date, extensive testing of clinically normal migratory birds in the infected countries has not produced any positive results for H5N1 so far.”

After testing hundreds of thousands of wild birds for the disease, scientists have only rarely identified live birds carrying the highly pathogenic H5N1. In a test of 13 000 wild birds in marshes within the bird flu infested provinces of China, the H5N1 virus was found in only 6 ducks [7]. But the scientists could not bring themselves to conclude that wild migrating birds are probably not to blame: “Our data show that H5N1 influenza virus, has continued to spread from its established source in southern China to other regions through transport of poultry and bird migration.”

The reality is that nearly all the wild birds that have tested positive for the disease were dead, and in most cases, found near to outbreaks in domestic poultry [8].

The WHO recently said that viruses from Turkey's first two human cases were virtually identical to those that killed 6 000 migratory birds in a nature reserve, Qinghai, in central China last year. But RSPB's conservation director Dr. Mark Avery insists that the trade in wild birds and the movement of poultry and poultry products, such as chicken manure used to fertilize fish farms, has led directly to the transfer of H5N1 across national boundaries [5].

“No species migrates from Qinghai, China, west to Eastern Europe,” BirdLife's Dr. Richard Thomas said. “When plotted, the pattern of outbreaks follows major road and rail routes, not flyways [8].

Wild birds are the reservoir for influenza viruses
Wild fowl and shore birds are believed to form the reservoir of influenza viruses of type A, (see Box) which cause diseases in many other species, including humans, pigs, horses, mink, cats, marine animals and a range of domestic birds [9].

Influenza viruses
There are 3 types of influenza viruses, A, B and C. The influenza A virus genome consists of 8 segments of RNA coding for 11 proteins, and they are further classified by subtype on the basis of the two main surface glycoproteins (proteins with complex carbohydrate side chains): haemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Only influenza A viruses infect birds. Humans can be inflected with influenza types, A, B and C viruses. Subtypes of influenza A currently circulating among people worldwide include H1N1, H1N2, and H3N2 [10].

Avian influenza A viruses of the subtypes H5 and H7, including H5N1, H7N7 and H7N3 viruses have been associated with high pathogenicity, and human infection with these viruses has r anged from mild (H7N3, H7N7) to severe and fatal disease (H7N7, H5N1).

Wild birds are the natural host for all known subtypes of influenza A viruses. In wild birds and poultry throughout the world, influenza A viruses representing 16 HA and 9 NA subtypes have been detected in numerous combinations, such as H1N1, H3N3, H16N3 and so on [9]. Typically wild birds do not become sick when infected.

Domestic poultry such as turkeys and chickens can become very sick and die from avian influenza, and some avian influenza A viruses also can cause serious disease and death in wild birds.

Avian influenza viruses are designated as low pathenogenic (LPAI) when they do no cause disease or only mild disease, and highly pathogenic (HPAI) when they do. The switch from low to high pathogenicity is not fully understood.

The HA protein is synthesized as a single polypeptide precursor, which is cleaved into HA 1 and HA 2 subunits by proteases. The switch from low to highly pathogenic avian virus appears to be associated with basic amino acid residues introduced into the HA cleavage site, which makes the protein easier to cleave and facilitates virus replication.

In general, human infection with avian influenza viruses occurs very infrequently, and has been associated with direct contact with infected sick or dead domestic poultry. At least part of the barrier preventing person-to-person transmission is that the HA protein on the virus' coat must bind to cell surface receptors in order to gain entry into cells. This binding is specific for certain carbohydrate side chains attached to the cell surface receptor proteins. The HA of the avian virus recognizes carbohydrate side chains that end in sialic acid linked to galactose in an a -2,3 chemical bond, i.e., SA- a -2,3-gal, whereas the human influenza virus HA recognizes an a -2,6 chemical bond: SA- a -2,6-gal. The HA protein of H5N1 is typical of avian viruses, which is why the virus cannot replicate sufficiently in a human host for person-to-person transmission to take place. However, many scientists believe that once the H5N1 has mutated its HA to recognize SA- a -2,6-gal, then human transmission would occur, and a global pandemic would result

Influenza viruses evolve by small point mutations (antigenic drift) or large changes due to reassortment (antigenic shift), the mixing of genome segments from different viruses.
 

Certain birds, particularly water birds, are thought to act as hosts by carrying the virus in their intestines and shedding it in saliva, nasal secretions and faeces. However, the viruses circulating in wild birds are generally not the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) strains that cause deadly bird flu. They do not cause illness in the birds, and are referred to as low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses. LPAI have been isolated from at least 105 wild bird species of 26 different families. All subtypes have been detected in the bird reservoir and in poultry, whereas relatively few have been detected in other species. Ducks, geese, swans, gulls, terns and waders are the major LPAI virus reservoir, where the virus preferentially infects cells lining the intestinal tract and is excreted in high concentrations in their faeces. Influenza viruses remain infectious in lake water for up to 4 days at 22C, and for more than 30 days at 0C. Faecal to oral transmission is the most frequent route for transmitting viruses, both of high and low pathogenicity.

The species in which influenza viruses are endemic, such as ducks, gulls and waders share the same habitat at least part of the year with other species in which influenza viruses are frequently detected, including geese, swans, rails, petrels and cormorants.

Wild migrating birds mostly follow routes (flyways) that go North-South, but some birds have breeding ranges that cross the Atlantic, and the birds over-winter in the same geographic area in the south. Migrating birds make frequent stops en route where different species congregate, increasing the chances of exchanging viruses among themselves and distributing LPAI viruses between countries and continents.

Since 1997, more than 16 outbreaks of H5 and H7 influenza have occurred among poultry in the United States. Highly pathogenic strains can cause 90 to 100 percent deaths in poultry. So how do low pathogenic viruses become highly pathogenic?

How highly pathogenic bird flu viruses are created
The influenza A virus genome is in eight separate segments. The segmented genome allows the viruses from different species to mix and exchange segments to create new influenza viruses. A pig infected with a human virus and a bird virus at the same time would allow the two viruses to exchange segments to create a new virus that retained most of the genes of the human virus but had the avian haemagglutinin and/or neuraminidase gene(s). The resulting new virus might be able to infect humans and spread from person to person (see Box). If this new virus causes serious illness in humans, then a pandemic would result. This g ene exchange could even take place in a human infected at the same time with human and avian flu viruses.

In 1997, an HPAI outbreak caused by H5N1 occurred in chicken farms and live bird markets in Hong Kong. This resulted in the first reported case of human influenza and death attributable directly to avian influenza virus. The H5N1 HPAI virus reappeared in 2002 in waterfowl at two parks in Hong Kong and was also detected in other captive and wild birds. It resurfaced again in 2003 and devastated the poultry industry in large parts of Southeast Asia since 2004. In 2005, the virus was isolated during an outbreak among migratory birds in Qinghai Lake, China, affecting large numbers of wild birds. This wiped out an estimated 10 percent of the global population of Bar-headed Geese. Subsequently, the virus reappeared across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and in several African countries. Wild bird deaths have been reported in several of these countries in Europe, particularly affecting Mute Swans and Whooping Swans, but also other waterfowl species, and occasionally in raptors, gulls and herons. So far it has caused mortality in more than 60 wild bird species [9].

But do wild migratory bird carry and spread HPAI as has been claimed, or are they just the victims of the deadly bird flu viruses that emerge in domestic fowl?

Genetic analysis provide no evidence that wild birds are to blame
Genetic analysis of avian influenza viruses in the public databases, based on the matrix protein gene M, reveals that the viruses can be divided into two distinct lineages [9], Eurasian and American, reflecting the long-term ecological and geographical separations of the hosts. Both lineages are also quite separate from human influenza viruses. The H5N1 highly pathogenic influenza viruses form a lineage derived from the Eurasian lineage.

The genetic separation between Eurasian and North American avian flu viruses is a bit surprising, as the bird fauna of North America and Eurasia are not absolutely isolated from each other. Some ducks and shore birds cross the Bering Strait during migration or have breeding ranges that include both the Russian Far East and Northwestern North America.

There are also other aspects of the virus that would appear to encourage genetic exchange between the two groups of avian flu viruses when the host birds meet up, such as the reassortment of viral genome segments (see above). Apart from that, the usual process of recombination (exchange of parts of genome segments) could also occur.

Not only do the avian flu viruses of Eurasia and North America form distinct lineages, the gulls in Eurasia and North America also each have their own distinct lineage of viruses. The evidence suggests that there are strong interspecific barriers to gene exchange, and it is not easy for viruses to jump species, and that complex adaptations are needed to achieve sustained transmission of the virus in a new species [11] (see “What can you believe about the bird flu pandemic?” this series).

The fact remains that HPAI viruses such as H5N1 are not endemic in wild birds as they are in domestic poultry, and when wild birds do contract the HPAI viruses, they succumb in large numbers, and are in no state to further transmit the disease along their usual migration routes .

As the researchers conclude [9]: “For the H5N1 virus, it is without doubt that domestic waterfowl, specific farming practices, and agroecological environments played a key role in the occurrence, maintenance, and spread of HPAI for many affected countries… Although numerous wild birds have also become infected, it has been much debated whether they play an active role in the geographic spread of the disease…”

Fowl play in deadly bird flu
Wild birds are not the only victims of bird flu; the other victims are small farmers and ordinary people who keep domestic fowl in their backyard to supplement their income or diet.

In response to the spread of bird flu, governments around the world are destroying backyard flocks and making indoor confinement of poultry mandatory [8, 12]. So far, 16 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa have imposed bans or restrictions on outdoors poultry farming. Forced confinement of poultry threatens the livelihood and food security of small- scale farmers and poor families in countries affected by bird flu. In Southeast Asia, governments, supported by the FAO, are encouraging framers to set up mesh screens or bamboo enclosures for their poultry. The costs, estimated at US$50-70, are simply beyond the means of Asia's small farmers, and are forcing them to abandon poultry altogether [8]. Forced confinement also threatens certified organic poultry operations, grass-fed pastured poultry and free-range egg production [12].

Quebec in Canada has imposed strict rules that require all farmers to keep poultry indoors and to keep wild birds out; despite the fact that the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre survey of wild birds has found no incidence of HPAI in Canada [13].

Factory farms and globalised poultry trade are to blame
There is growing evidence that HPAI originates in factory farms and is spread not by migrating wild birds so much as by the globalised poultry trade. In low-density backyard flocks, a high pathogenic bird flu virus will simply kill all the birds quickly without infecting other birds. In a factory farm with a high density of birds, however, the virus can spread and multiply rapidly throughout the huge confined flock, and beyond that, via the global trade in live birds, eggs, virus-contaminated feed and manure, across country borders and across continents.

There is indeed strong correlation between exposure to factory farms and incidence of HPAI. Thailand, China and Vietnam, all have a highly developed poultry industry that has expanded dramatically. Production of chicken meat in Southeast Asia - Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam – jumped from around 300 000 tonnes in 1971 to 2 440 000 tonnes in 2001 [8]. China's production of chicken tripled during the 1990s to over 9 million tonnes a year. Practically all the new poultry production has happened on factory farms outside major cities and is integrated into the transnational production system. Live birds and eggs are exported to countries such as Nigeria (where the first HAI outbreak in Africa occurred), as well as ‘feed' which often includes litter (i.e., manure) in the ingredients. Nigeria has a large and poorly regulated factory poultry sector that is supplied with chicks from factory farms in China [14]

Manure that may contain live virus is spread on surrounding farmland, or exported as fertilizer and through run-off, may end up in surface waters where wild birds feed and rest. Chicken manure is even found in fish farm feed formulations where it is introduced directly into the aquatic environment.

Wild birds and poultry that have fallen victim to HPAI in Asia, Turkey and Nigeria appear to have been directly exposed to HPAI virus originating in the factory farm system.

In Asia, a flock of wild ducks died from HPAI after having come into contact with the disease at a remote lake where a fish farm used feed pellets made from poultry litter from a factory farm [8]. In Turkey, a massive cull of backyard flocks – and the deaths of three children – took place after a nearby factory farm sold sick and dying birds to local peasants at cut-rate prices.

Recent genetic evidence suggests that domestic ducks may act as a reservoir of H5N1 influenza viruses after the virus has emerged [15]. H5N1 viruses were isolated from apparently healthy domestic ducks in Mainland China from 1999 to 2002, and researchers found that the isolates were becoming progressively more pathogenic for mammals . Twenty-one viruses isolated were confirmed to be H5N1 subtype and antigenically similar to the virus that was the source of the 1997 Hong Kong bird flu haemagglutinin gene. All are highly pathogenic in chickens, most causing 100 percent mortality, although the earliest isolates were less lethal. When tested on mice, however, there was a marked increase in pathogenicity with time. The earliest seven isolates were non-pathogenic or of low pathogenicity, the next seven were more pathogenic and the last four, highly pathogenic. The results suggest that while circulating in domestic ducks, H5N1 viruses gradually acquired the characteristics that make them lethal in mice. One possible explanation is the transmission of duck H5N1 viruses to humans, the selective evolution of the viruses in humans, and their subsequent transmission back to ducks.

The presence of H5N1 viruses lethal to chickens from apparently healthy farmed ducks is another important route for the virus to spread through trade.

Blaming and devastating the victims
Numerous papers, statements and documents issued by the United Nations FAO, WHO, and government agencies have been silent on the role of industrial poultry farming in the bird flu crisis, and indeed, have proposed to compensate them generously for loss profits (see above). Instead, the finger is pointed at backyard farms, calling for tighter controls of their operations and greater “restructuring” of the poultry sector.

The big poultry corporations are even trying to use the bird flu outbreaks to shut down small-scale poultry farming altogether. “We cannot control migratory birds but we can surely work hard to close down as many backyard farms as possible,” declared Margaret Say, Southeast Asian director for the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council.

A team of scientists who analysed the H5N1 epidemic in Thailand 2004 found that the risks for HPAI infection were 5.3, 5.1 1.5, 32.4 and 2.3 times higher, respectively in commercial layers, broilers, ducks, quails and geese than in back yard chickens [16]. This is clear evidence corroborating other findings that corporate factory farms are to blame, and not backyard farms. On that basis, we should be calling for closure of factory farms, not family farms.

Genetic engineering scientists too, are taking this opportunity to promote their wares: transgenic ‘flu-resistant' chickens [8]. “Once we have regulatory approval, we believe it will take between four and five years to breed enough [transgenic] chickens to replace the entire world population,” said Laurence Tiley, Professor of Molecular Virology at Cambridge University in the UK. Genetic engineering is the best way to breach species barriers and to allow viruses to jump species to create pandemics (see “What can you believe about bird flu?” this series).

AND HERE IS MORE...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060410/vonhoffman

March 28, 2006
Avian Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest 
Nicholas von Hoffman
 
Is it Mother Nature or Father Human Greed whom we have to blame for avian flu?

A few days ago the Union of Concerned Scientists sent out an e-mail saying, "A study by the international non-governmental organization GRAIN suggests that avian influenza is spread primarily by the global poultry trade, not migratory birds or free-range poultry operations as has been suggested, and that confined factory farm production contributed to its mutation into its current deadly form. The organization tracked the movements of the disease over time and found that they were correlated, not with migratory bird routes or the locations of free-range farms, but with integrated trade networks involving poultry, eggs, meat, feathers, manure and animal feed. US Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns warned that bird flu will almost certainly come to the United States."

An article on the website of the biodiversity agency Grain titled "Fowl Play: The Poultry Industry's Central Role in the Bird Flu Crisis" is yet one more reminder that things are not always as they tell us they are. Maybe the migrating swallows and arctic terns are not carrying the H5N1 flu virus after all, and why do we have to wait for the Union of Concerned Scientists to hip us to the knowledge that the disease rarely occurs in small family flocks but rather mostly in farm factories where chickens are raised by the tens of thousands inside, under unsanitary and debilitating conditions that make them soft prey for the virus. Overly large, unregulated agribusiness is at it again.
 
All of this is but a new version of an old truth: There is no money, or not enough money, in health. From a business point of view prevention of disease or disability is a chump's game, whether you are talking about Canadian geese, a Rhode Island red hen or a person. The big bucks are in sickness. You can make money getting people sick by selling them bad food and make more money selling them remedies for what you did to them.

So the same Grain article also brings the startling news that "one of the standard ingredients in industrial chicken feed, and most industrial animal feed, is 'poultry litter.' This is a euphemism for whatever is found on the floor of the factory farms: fecal matter, feathers, bedding, etc. Chicken meat, under the label 'animal byproduct meal,' also goes into industrial chicken feed. The WHO (World Health Organization) says that bird flu can survive in bird feces for up to 35 days and, in a recent update to its bird flu fact sheet, it mentions feed as a possible medium for the spread of bird flu between farms. Russian authorities pointed to feed as one of the main suspected sources of an H5N1 outbreak at a large-scale factory farm in Kurgan province, where 460,000 birds were killed. Yet globally, nothing is being done to tighten regulations or monitoring of the feed industry. Instead it often seems that the industry, not governments, is calling the shots."

Thus the don't-fence-me-in, don't-regulate-me cowboys of the food business may kill us by breeding sick chickens and may kill the chickens by feeding them contaminated food--which, of course, they sell. Yippeee-ay-yea, bring on the pandemic! But there is yet another way of wringing legitimate profits out of this disease, which, if the most pessimistic predictions turn out to be true, may cause one out of five of us to turn up our toes and head for the great chicken factory in the sky.

That other way is selling us expensive medicine that does not work in case we come down with avian flu. The medicine in question is Tamiflu, which may cure Tamiflu but doesn't cure avian flu. Nevertheless, they can't make the stuff fast enough. They are back-ordered into the next century.

If that were not fun enough, Grain has also discovered that Donald Rumsfeld is a major stockholder in Gilead Sciences, which licenses Tamiflu. Whether or not Tamiflu is of the slightest use to avian flu sufferers, it is of great profitability to the secretary of defense, since Gilead is expected to make $118 million from Tamiflu sales this year. Somebody has laid a big, fat egg here.

MORE.....

Dead Birds Don't Fly

It follows exactly what was presented at the recent Avian Flu conference that I attended for health care providers.
Some key points:
<< The spread of highly pathogenic H5N1 in poultry throughout Asia is almost entirely due to human activity.  The virus has been able to travel large distances through the buying and selling of infected birds (both in large
shipments and individual birds bought and sold at live bird markets); by hitching a ride on transport equipment (e.g., vehicles, cages, egg crates) or workers' clothing and shoes; and through contact with contaminated manure, soil and litter.9

<< H5N1 can survive in cool temperatures in manure for at least three months, and a single gram of manure can contain enough viral material to infect 1 million birds. In water, the virus survives for four days at 72°F and 30 days at 32°F. It can survive indefinitely in frozen poultry meat. Eggs can also harbor the virus. Proper cooking (to 162°F) of poultry meat and eggs will deactivate the virus. Good hygienic practices such as separating raw meat from cooked or ready-to-eat foods (i.e., using different knives and cutting boards) and washing hands after handling frozen or raw meat and eggs will ensure the virus is not spread through food. To date, no human has been infected from properly handled food.10

<< It could be that the current strain has evolved specifically for domestic poultry, whose short lives spent in close quarters require the virus to jump quickly from bird to bird to survive. Wild waterfowl may actually be getting infected via domestic poultry rather than the other way around. Yet another possibility is that some other migratory bird species, even one who spends most of its time on or over land, could be transmitting the virus. At this time, the connection between migratory birds and highly pathogenic H5N1 transmission is patchy and
the consensus among scientists seems to be that migratory birds probably play some role, but that HUMAN ACTIVITY CONTINUES TO BE THE MAIN MODE OF TRANSMISSION. 12

<< Free-range and organic poultry have an advantage over their caged-raised counterparts in regards to the vitality of their immune systems. Confined poultry are more stressed due to the large density of other birds, poor
ventilation and lack of exercise. Free-range poultry are not subject to those conditions. In addition, they are constantly exposed to low levels of pathogens that naturally reside in the environment and this exposure further
strengthens their immune system. Many of the poultry lines employed by free-range farmers have been bred to live outdoors and resist infection.15,16
>>

READ IT ALL!

http://www.agobservatory.org/library.cfm?refid=80410

 

 AND MORE...

Once in awhile, I feel the urge to go back into the arena where
consensus reality is being created by the liars, thieves, cheats,
killers, and the PR nut cases they employ.

Normally, when this impulse comes upon me, I rest for a few minutes
until it passes.

But in the case of woo woo bird flu, I have to give in, because it's
such a great illustration of manifestation at its worst. If anyone needs
further evidence that he should be creating his own future, as opposed
to surrendering to the culture, this is it.

Now, readers of this site know I've been on the bird-flu case for some
time. I reject ALL the so-called evidence that the H5N1 virus is a
health problem for humans. I've described in detail how the medical
tests for the virus---which are the sole foundation for any claims of a
coming pandemic---are useless and deceptive and meaningless and stupid
and fraudulent at the core.

And that's just the beginning of the hoax.

But let's look at recent developments on the PR front. They're cosmic in
their lunacy.

First, we have the breaking story that ABC is going to air a made-for-TV
movie on May 9, just in time for sweeps week, during which ratings
become life-and-death propositions for the networks.

The title of this movie? FATAL CONTACT: BIRD FLU IN AMERICA.

Oh yeah.

Rope the viewers in. Terrorize the suckers and the rubes.

ABC PR states, " follows an outbreak of an Avian Flu from its origins in
a Hong Kong market through its mutation into a virus transmittable from
human to human around the world."

Last night, I saw a trailer/promo for the film on ABC. People shooting
at each other in the streets. Law-enforcement guys with guns. Hysteria.

Okay. So much for the movie.

Next, we have glimpses, in the press, of the brand-new bird-flu
containment plan the White House is laying out. I've snipped some quotes
from an April 16 Washington Post piece.

U.S. Plan For Flu Pandemic Revealed
Multi-Agency Proposal Awaits Bush's Approval
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 16, 2006; Page A01

President Bush is expected to approve soon a national pandemic influenza
response plan that identifies more than 300 specific tasks for federal
agencies, including determining which frontline workers should be the
first vaccinated and expanding Internet capacity to handle what would
probably be a flood of people working from their home computers.

The Treasury Department is poised to sign agreements with other nations
to produce currency if U.S. mints cannot operate. The Pentagon,
anticipating difficulties acquiring supplies from the Far East, is
considering stockpiling millions of latex gloves. And the Department of
Veterans Affairs has developed a drive-through medical exam to quickly
assess patients who suspect they have been infected.

The document is the first attempt to spell out in some detail how the
government would detect and respond to an outbreak, and continue
functioning through what could be an 18-month crisis, which in a
worst-case scenario could kill 1.9 million Americans. Bush was briefed
on a draft of the implementation plan on March 17...

...Experts project that the next pandemic -- depending on severity and
countermeasures -- could kill 210,000 to 1.9 million Americans.
To keep the 1.8 million federal workers healthy and productive through a
pandemic, the Bush administration would tap into its secure stash of
medications, cancel large gatherings, encourage schools to close and
shift air traffic controllers to the busier hubs -- probably where flu
had not yet struck. Retired federal employees would be summoned back to
work, and National Guard troops could be dispatched to cities facing
possible "insurrection," said Jeffrey W. Runge, chief medical officer at
the Department of Homeland Security.

The administration hopes to help contain the first cases overseas by
rushing in medical teams and supplies. "If there is a small outbreak in
a country, it may behoove us to introduce travel restrictions," Runge
said, "to help stamp out that spark."

However, even an effective containment effort would merely postpone the
inevitable, said Ellen P. Embrey, deputy assistant secretary for force
health preparedness and readiness at the Pentagon. "Unfortunately, we
believe the forest fire will burn before we are able to contain it
overseas, and it will arrive on our shores in multiple locations," she
said.

...The federal government -- as well as private businesses -- should
expect as much as 40 percent of its workforce to be out during a
pandemic, said Bruce Gellin, director of the National Vaccine Program
Office at HHS. Some will be sick or dead; others could be depressed, or
caring for a loved one or staying at home to prevent spread of the
virus. "The problem is, you never know which 40 percent will be out," he
said.

The Agriculture Department, with 4 million square feet of office space
in metropolitan Washington alone, would likely stagger shifts, close
cafeterias and cancel face-to-face meetings, said Peter Thomas, the
acting assistant secretary for administration...

Operating the largest health-care organization in the nation, the VA has
directed its 153 hospitals to stock up on other medications, equipment,
food and water, said chief public health officer Lawrence Deyton. "But
it's a few days' worth, not enough to last months," he added...

end of Post snips

You get the idea. Putting down INSURRECTIONS. No more Bill of Rights for
the duration of the "pandemic." Chaos. Protect government workers first
and foremost. The usual.

Based on ZERO scientific evidence, all this is swinging into gear.

And most people say, "Well, if the government is going to do all THIS,
the threat must be real."

Yeah. That's precisely what you're supposed to think.

They're manifesting your world for you.

You can go along with it and believe in the PR, or you can manifest your
own future. Your choice.

However.....out of the mists comes something else entirely. The date is
April 15, two days before the Washington Post article I just quoted from.

An article in the Tacoma Tribune. It reports on a big-time public-health
conference in downtown Tacoma. 1200 people in attendance. The featured
speaker? Julie Gerberding, the head of the CDC.

The CDC is the nation's premiere public-health agency, especially when
it comes to contagious disease threats.

And what did Julie say?

Read on.

HEADLINE: Bird flu threat not so grave, CDC chief says

M. ALEXANDER OTTO; The News Tribune
Published: April 15th, 2006 01:00 AM

Federal health officials at a meeting Friday in Tacoma downplayed the
risk bird flu poses to humans, contrasting earlier warnings from the
federal government.

"There is no evidence it will be the next pandemic," Dr. Julie
Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta, said of avian flu. There is "no evidence it is evolving in a
direction that is becoming more transmissible to people."

Gerberding spoke at the Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center at a
pandemic flu conference that drew 1,200 people from across the state,
mostly health department officials and others involved in emergency
planning.

Other officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture and elsewhere joined her. Gov. Chris
Gregoire and several upper-level state officials also spoke.

Gerberding's comments on bird flu contrast earlier statements from the
federal government that tended to emphasize worse-case scenarios.

In a November letter to the public, for instance, President Bush
encouraged preparing "ourselves, our nation, and our world to fight this
potentially devastating outbreak of infectious disease."

The concern is that the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus will mutate into a
form passed easily between people.

end of article excerpt

NO EVIDENCE OF A PANDEMIC.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS.

Of course, you can speculate that the CDC is just trying to keep people
calm in the face of what will be a devastating epidemic. But then why
make such a categorical statement?

It's called cover your ass. Because at every level of medical research,
there are people who know what's what, who see the incredible overplay
and lies and self-aggrandizing behavior and the non-science. They see
it. And somewhere on the record, it would be nice if a big-time
bureaucrat like Julie Gerberding made that point in her own way. For later.

She chose Tacoma. Not Washington DC. Not Atlanta, home of the CDC.
Tacoma. A little out-of-the-way city.

Where the press coverage is not very heavy.

Naturally, the government has backup for the backup for the backup. It
goes this way: "Well, even if H5N1 bird flu turns out to be a dud, we
know that some day there WILL be a pandemic, and we have to get ready.
We have to have a plan."

Which is like saying, "Chicken Little was right. He just had the timing
wrong. The sky will fall. It may happen next month or in 1000 years.
During an inter-galactic war that takes place a billion light years from
Earth, a missile will be fired and it will miss its target. It will ride
on in space, and eventually this super-duper thingo will arrive here and
chop away half the planet. So let's get ready now."

I'm ready. I have six bottles of water in the closet.

On the other hand, faced with such a mountain of lies and crap and
contradiction, it makes a lot more sense to get on the royal road, where
each one of us manifests, with power, what we truly desire.

You can go along with them.

Or you can go along with you.

JON RAPPOPORT www.nomorefakenews.com <http://www.nomorefakenews.com>

CONTROLLING OUR IMPORTS, NOT TAGGING OUR CHICKENS, TO STOP DISEASE!

We import WAY more than we export (trade deficit) - it makes far more sense and would cost less to control and/or quaratine imported animals/animal products than it will be to try to ID and track the billions of animals in our nation. Tracking American animals would not stop bird flu if brought into our country through a situation like below...

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With the NAIS, rubber duckies will be the only ducks your children can have!