Word: avian
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What is it? Avian flu is a form of influenza that often kills domesticated poultry such as chickens and turkeys. Some strains of bird flu can make humans sick, too. The most dangerous is H5N1, which has caused at least 10 human deaths during the current outbreak. H5N1 first jumped the species barrier from birds to humans in Hong Kong in 1997, when six out of 18 infected people died. The fear is that H5N1 could combine with a human-flu strain to create a deadly virus that's so contagious it could cause a human pandemic...
...What caused this outbreak? One theory is that wild waterfowl (the natural hosts of avian-flu viruses) have spread the virus while migrating across Asia. Live-bird markets may also have played a key role in spreading avian flu, with domesticated poultry excreting the virus, for at least 10 days, in their mucus and feces...
...Thaksin Shinawatra has carefully cultivated the impression that Thailand is somehow immune to the ills that have afflicted much of the region: terrorism, economic turmoil, SARS. So it was no surprise to hear him declare last week Thailand's poultry industry?Asia's largest chicken exporter?safe from the avian-flu outbreak sweeping the region. On TV, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet cheerfully tucked into a variety of spicy Thai chicken dishes. Even the European Union's Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, David Byrne, was convinced, asserting: "There absolutely is no evidence of the existence of bird...
...last Friday, Thaksin's government finally came clean, confessing that two people had tested positive for avian flu, with another three under observation. Local papers also reported that two people suspected of having the disease had died, and the Agriculture Ministry admitted that more than 6 million chickens had already been culled. As China learned after its SARS coverup last year, viruses thrive in a climate of secrecy and denial?and can cost a country dearly. The E.U., Japan and other countries immediately banned the import of Thai chickens. Thaksin's own credibility has also taken a hit. Thai officials...
...systematically sample migratory birds to determine which viruses they carry. In Europe, virologist Albert Osterhaus of Erasmus University in the Netherlands has launched a survey in which fecal samples are submitted from around the continent for testing. "We've found the proteins that indicate the presence of various avian influenzas," says Osterhaus. The prevalence of viruses in migratory birds may have been responsible for an avian-flu outbreak in the Netherlands last year that infected 80 people, killing one. The virus responsible, an H7, which was less deadly than the H5 strain, did achieve human-to-human transmission...