Imogen Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 Firstly - I just want to point out I'm a bit of a worrier, so this post might seem a little stupid to other people! I read something in the Sunday papers yesterday about bird flu, and how it could possibly spread to the UK. I saw that it affected chickens and ducks and when humans got it, quite a large percent died I know that the papers often make up a lot of things and really s"Ooops, word censored!"e the barrels for stories in the summer, and I tried searching the forum but as you can imagine, there were WAY too many posts with the word 'bird' in them!! Just wondered if anyone knows anything else about bird flu and can possibly reassure me??? Sorry for being such a worrier! I just don't want my girls to get anything nasty.....or me for that matter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popcorn Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 Hi Imogen, I would say your chances of getting bird flu are pretty non existant. Your girls rarely come into contact with other birds, and I would imagine that you keep their immune systems in tip top condition with garlic in their water and a healthy diet. To put your mind at rest, just be extra vigilant in the cleaning dept. incase other birds are pecking around or other droppings get into the run...but again...it's quite unlikely that if this does happen, these birds are carrying the virus. I think it's the keepers of large flocks of birds that are more at risk here, especially those who free-range in open places and don't have the luxury of a clean eglu to sleep in every night Hope this has put your mind at rest a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cate in NZ Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 Lots of stuff around about avian flu and human transmission, the health bods are all getting worried about human to human transmission now, because that's the next step. I know that theoretically it's possible, and I think there have been a couple of isolated instances of it, although I'm not entirely sure of my facts there. But there's going to be a lot more about that in the media I'm sure because it's a health hot topic at the moment. And there's no effective vaccine yet, as far as I understand they need human - human transmission to happen before they can identify the strains and make viable vaccines against them. Otherwise it's all guesswork. Quite worrying stuff. But, you don't need to worry about your chickens getting anything and infecting you, so far all the chicken to human transmission has happened in Asia. The human to human worry becomes bigger because of global travel now, and diseases that used to be confined to one area can spread very quickly these days, just look at SARS as an example. But, it's not worth losing sleep over, and I'm sure that your mini flock of chickens won't get anything nasty that they can pass on to you. Just don't send them to China for a holiday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motherhen Posted August 8, 2005 Share Posted August 8, 2005 I think we are ok with our hens. The global pandemic will be when the flu crosses the bird/human barrier in the far east and humans start passing it on to each other and modern air travel spreads it round the world. Once that happens then birds will be pretty irrelevant in the equation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imogen Posted August 9, 2005 Author Share Posted August 9, 2005 OK! Thanks very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
