Bird flu?????

[day5 0]

I have been hearing about the bird flu for weeks now Im wondering if any of you know more about it than what I have learned. I know it is not very contegious (as of now) in humans but a mutation of the virus could change that. Im wondering how this may effect the tying community as far as supplies. I do not think correct me if Im wrong that any suppliers (mets whiting kehough wapsi etc) get imported feathers. But if the bird flu reaches the US is there a vacanation for the birds and is that even possible to do a mass vacination of all captive birds???? What are the real concerns (other than a human pandemick) to the population of birds that we use for materials???

[Flytyer-1 0]

I am not so worried about catching the darned bug as I am about the importation of tying materials such as golden and silver pheasants. There maybe wholesale death and/or slaughter of these birds in Asia resulting in a shortage here. Not to mention the effects on local breeders- Whiting, Metz, Keough, Ewing, Collins, Conranch, etc., if the virus becomes established in the U.S.

 

Best from Nashville-

 

Stack Scoville

[Mato Kuwapi 0]

The way I see it...if the feathers don't come from your county of origin....your screwed. If the bug hits the birds in your county of origin....your screwed. You better hope you have a good supply of those feathers you ca only get through import because I think it's going to be a long time before they let any thing BIRD cross a border. Now you can't stop the ones that fly over, and in the end, thats where the real problem lies.

 

The stupid thing is...virus needs a living host to exist. Once the host dies, the virus dies soon after. So those off shore feathers off of dead birds are really not the big problem but no govenrment will take that chance. I think if you take a look at who has been infected so far, world wide, you will see that it is bird handlers who handle live birds that get the flu.

 

Once this virus mutates to a human to human virus... well I don't want to think about it. Birds are the least of our worries.

[Guest]

According to my suppliers back when I sold material retail the bird flu has been causing problems with JC imports for quite some time. It has been under the radar under until recently but it has been a concern for quite a while.

[Termite 0]

All of the hackle growers here in the states have a grasp (or should have) on bio-security. They don't bring in new birds and don't let people visit that could be tracking illness in on their shoes or clothes. This goes a long way in the prevention of bird flu. There are several strains of bird flu and only one is currently a threat to humans. Typicaly if bird flu is found in an area ALL domestic birds in a several mile radius will be depopulated. Most hackle growers have birds in more than one place for this very reason. If one farm gets depopulated then they can replace the flock from the other source. There may come a time when hackle is limited but it would be short lived and within a year or so production would be back up to par. In addition I think there is plenty of processed hackle to last a year on store shelfs. Of course fresh is always better, old and stale will work in a bind At least in the near future I would not be too concerned about the bird flu affecting your tying.

 

Mark

[Gregor 0]

PLEASE do not panic about the bird flu. Till now there is ca. 70 people dead because of it in 2 years in whole Asia. And think a little how many people lives there.

Now, there is the same number of deaths in one month because of the casual flu in Europe.