posted on February 7, 2004 03:17:50 PM new
DOVER, Del. (AP) - Delaware state officials ordered the destruction of some 12,000 chickens Friday on a farm that ships the birds to New York City after confirming the flock has been infected by avian influenza.
"We don't want this to spread," Delaware Agriculture Secretary Michael Scuse said at a hastily arranged news conference Friday evening.
"We're trying to protect an industry that is very important."
Scuse would not disclose the location of the infected chicken houses or the identity of the grower, saying only it is an independent operation in southern Kent County that sold to the live bird market in New York.
"We don't want a lot of traffic around this location," he said.
Scuse said the strain of avian influenza is different from the one that has spread to the human population in Asia and there is no threat to human health.
Nevertheless, the strain, known as H7, is one of the most virulent types of the virus and has the potential to cause severe economic damage if it spreads to the commercial broiler industry, a linchpin of the region's agricultural economy.
"We're trying to nip this thing in the bud," said William Satterfield, executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., an industry trade group.
Avian influenza is an airborne respiratory virus that spreads easily among animals through nasal and eye secretions, as well as manure.
Satterfield advised commercial poultry growers in the region not to allow visitors on their farms and chicken houses.
"We just need the growers to be a bit more vigilant," he said.
"If this gets into the commercial chicken industry, we could have a severe situation."
The infected flock will be destroyed with carbon monoxide and composted inside the two chicken houses were they have been raised. Testing will begin Saturday morning of flocks on 12 commercial farms within a three-kilometre radius, Scuse said.
Results of the testing should be known within hours, said state veterinarian Wesley Towers.
State officials learned of the problem Thursday after the grower contacted a representative of Elanco Animal Health, in Salisbury, Md. Elanco veterinarian Robert Evans and Mariano Salem of the University of Delaware's poultry diagnostic lab visited the farm Thursday afternoon.
"We found a lot of morbidity," said Salem, adding two samples tested positive for avian influenza Thursday afternoon.
Further testing Friday was followed by a meeting of the DPI Emergency Poultry Disease Task Force.
"Less than 24 hours after we had run the samples, a lot of decisions were made," Salem said.
Towers said the New York live bird market has had a problem with avian influenza for some time. Delaware agriculture officials speculate the virus was carried to Delaware on unclean bird crates or perhaps chicken manure on a person's shoes.
Towers said he visited the New York market with the Delaware grower last fall to advise him about the precautions he needed to take.
"We tried to tell him that there was a problem up there and that he ought to be careful," he said.
posted on February 7, 2004 03:25:20 PM new
And if there is a problem in New York bad enough they warned him about it last year then why haven't we heard anything about that?
Could that be part of why eggs have gone up about 40 cents a dozen in the store recently?
posted on February 8, 2004 08:39:06 AM new
great for the American economy,...not... anyone going out for a KFC bucket, in the near future
US chicken imports suspended
Japan and South Korea have suspended imports of US chicken as details of an outbreak of bird flu in the state of Delaware are investigated.
The US authorities have confirmed the outbreak but say it is not the same strain of flu which has swept through Asia and cannot be passed to humans.
Japan and South Korea saw outbreaks of the lethal H5N1 avian flu in December but so far have seen no human victims.
This variant has killed 18 people, mostly Vietnamese, in the region.
Japanese Agriculture Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei said Tokyo's suspension of all poultry imports from the US - Japan's fourth biggest supplier - was a "precautionary measure" and he did not say how long it would last.
The country banned supplies from two other north-eastern US states - Rhode Island and Connecticut - last year over outbreaks of bird flu there. It also has temporary bans on poultry imports from China and Thailand
South Korea announced a temporary ban on all US chicken and duck imports and reports suggest Malaysia and Singapore may also be taking action in response to the Delaware outbreak.
Japanese checks
Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse said this weekend that the flu found on a poultry farm in the state was a H7 strain, fatal to poultry but not transmissible to humans.
In Japan, the agriculture minister sought to reassure consumers that every effort was being made to ensure imports were not contaminated.
"We can't agree to imports unless the meat has been properly heat treated," he said on television.
"We would consider restarting imports only when we have sent our own people to thoroughly check facilities in each country."
Japan's own outbreak of H5N1 led to more than 34,000 birds being slaughtered or dying but health officials are confident it has been contained.
South Korea has slaughtered nearly 2 million chickens and ducks since it confirmed an outbreak of H5N1 near the capital Seoul.
posted on February 8, 2004 08:54:07 AM new
downside to all this, so much for store bought chicken soup for cold remedy, or chicken itself, there goes the $3.99 cheap breakfast at A&W,and Pancake House, no more chicken Chinese dishes ( deep fried chicken balls,chicken fried rice, etc. ) at the all you can eat restaraunts, isolation will be the norm more,
upside, internet will be more used for communication between people,webcams will be selling like hot cakes, new businesses will boom from this,
Britons warned of bird flu threat
Britons travelling to parts of Asia are urged to take care after several deaths in an outbreak of bird flu in chickens.
As many as six people, including a boy of six, have died in Thailand with another half dozen dead in Vietnam.
The UK Foreign Office has urged travellers to avoid bird markets and farms in affected countries.
South Korea, Indonesia, Cambodia, Taiwan, Japan and Pakistan have also had to cull birds to stop the spread of the disease.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it was safe to eat chicken even in an affected area, as the disease was caught from close contact with live infected birds.
It added that the disease was unlikely to be caught in the UK, as no raw chicken from the areas affected had been imported since the current outbreak began.
FSA adviser Professor Hugh Pennington told BBC News 24: "This is not a food safety problem...
"You have to breath in the virus from the sick bird, the bird that's actually excreting the virus in order to get infected and even that's a pretty rare event."
Professor Pennington said eating chicken imported from Thailand would not be a risk, even if it was available.
"Cooking the chicken kills the virus stone dead."
Direct contact
Frances Tuke, from the Association of British Travel Agents, said people planning to travel to Thailand should avoid any live animal market.
"Quite a lot of tourists do go to them," she told BBC Radio Five Live.
Bird flu, otherwise known as avian influenza viruses, cause disease ranging from mild conjunctivitis to severe flu.
There is no evidence the disease passes between humans, but it is feared this outbreak could mutate as it spreads.
The first suspected case in this outbreak was reported in Thailand in November.
All the confirmed cases in Asia had had direct contact with infected poultry.
The Thai boy who died is believed to have picked up the virus after touching the carcasses of infected poultry in his village in western Kanchanaburi province.
posted on February 8, 2004 09:34:32 AM new
excellent sites " plsmith " but i don't want to rain on your suggestions, a must read if you are a serious vegetarian
the best is to produce your own, find local seeds, local produce from the country, if a city dweller, grow your own food, instead of the houseplants you got, there are ways
i wish i knew how to hilite these websites, can't figure out how to do it
posted on February 8, 2004 10:38:10 AM new
This story about grass fed cattle in Marin County, California was on one of the Canadian news shows last evening. In the markets the meat is labeled as "Grass Fed Beef" and some is labeled "Organic" if the land is certified as such. It costs a bit more for the beef but people are purchasing it.
Grass-fed, grass-finished cattle have spent their entire lives grazing on pastureland that, if not actually certified organic, is maintained without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
Mad Cow Disease and the new virus with chickens was bound to happen sooner or later because of the way things have been going. It's time to get back to the old "natural" ways of doing things.
posted on February 8, 2004 12:03:56 PM new
deep fried chicken ball in all you can eat chinese buffet??
thats news to me!!
true,chinese buffet are able to offer so much variety (aka protein dishes) because chicken is cheap,esp dark meat,now what are they going to offer-TOFU??
I just bot a buddy-L chicken and make boiled chicken,the soup i add napa cabbage ,yummy!
-sig file -------the lobster in the boiling pot of water who tries to prevent the others from climbing out.
posted on February 8, 2004 12:27:35 PM new
Sky I saw one of these anti - aspartame sites and thought it was unbalanced - too "the sky is falling" for me.
However I had been suffering from a morning headache every morning until about 10 o'clock and it was always hehind my right ear.
Imagine my surprise when a woman described EXACTLY the same early morning headache in the same location that stopped when she stopped drinking diet pop.
So I stopped my habit of drinking several bottles of diet pop everyday and the headaches went away.
About a month later I woke up with one again. My wife was smart enough she went through the waste paper basket and found the wrapper for a coffeee cake we had bought. Sure enough it was not labeled as diet or low sugar but it did have aspartame in it anyway.
So if the site seems a little extreme like the stuff is from the devil himself don't think it has no validity at all.
posted on February 8, 2004 12:35:11 PM new
hi gravid
same here, but my was gum with aspertane, after chewing a few pieces i found i got headaches also, could not figure it out, so someone told me about aapertane and the after affects of products with aspertane,and sure enough I stopped the gum with aspertane and headaches gone also....to this day i will not buy anything with aspertane in it.
posted on February 8, 2004 12:47:55 PM new
Thank-you for the sites, Skylite. I hope reading them will encourage others to be more aware about what they eat.
Gravid & Skylite, I also drink tons of diet pop daily but only get headaches if I have to drink something made with sugar, so I think some people might be just have a sensitivity to the chemical.
posted on February 8, 2004 01:28:44 PM new
Many years ago I found out that Aspertame gave me migraines. All the teens that have worked in my shop have drank diet sodas and on occasion would bring me one and I would always refuse to drink it. I have never had a weight problem but they would try to convince me that sugar is bad.
I also heard that Aspertame may be the cause of some brain tumors so the site that skylite linked to was interesting to read.
There are many foods that I can no longer eat because of headaches and when I check the ingredients I am appalled at what goes into the packaging. I seldom eat in restaurants these days for the very same reasons. Salads can be lethal if one is sensitive to preservatives. MSG is another worry and some restaurants will lie and say it isn't in the food.
posted on February 8, 2004 02:39:37 PM new
Interesting and valuable info on those sites, Skylite! Thanks again.
I don't buy organic for two reasons:
1) Cost
2) Unavoidable pesticide contamination due to run-off at neighboring farms where pesticides are used
Aside from the dangers of mad cow disease and now this avian flu, the reason I stopped eating meat was that it's just too hard on my system anymore, as in, my body can't process it well. Maybe that's a function of all the antibiotics and pesticide concentrations in our meat supply these days, and maybe not. All I know is, every time I eat meat, whether dining at restaurants or in friends' homes, it takes my body about a week to get over it.
I'm not a storm-trooping vegan, and I would never scorn someone's hospitality by trying to bend their menu to my preferences. In fact, most of my friends would be surprised to learn that I'm a vegetarian since I don't make an issue of it and never comment on their own choice of foods, except to praise their culinary skills.
I had the same experience with aspartame. Headache-city with that stuff. I'm back to beer now...
posted on February 8, 2004 03:31:29 PM new
And even things that are good too much of them is bad. Even water.
A friend of mine pointed to his huge pile of horse manure and informed me it was 100% pure and organic but that didn't mean he wanted it in his sandwich for lunch.
posted on February 8, 2004 04:13:12 PM new
Could it be an act of terrorism, a sinister plan to systematically undermine the economy by planting diseases in livestock within U.S.
posted on February 8, 2004 04:28:18 PM new
That'd have to be some sort of private terrorism then, KC; Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad -- heck, even anti-abortion terrorists here in the U.S. -- all go in for "showy" violent acts. If indeed a conscious poisoning of our food supply is underway, it's being done by people who aren't seeking notoriety. Shadow people, perhaps, of whom we have no information whatsoever. Could even be the latest perversion in the area of corporate espionage. Maybe someone's trying to ruin the east coast poultry market (Tyson, Inc.) so that west coast chicken firms (Foster Farms) can gain control and dominate sales...
posted on February 8, 2004 04:30:47 PM new
Krafty, The probability of sparking a conspiracy theory on this thread has now been severely diminished by your logical conclusion.
posted on February 8, 2004 04:44:01 PM new
Ya think?
Heck, maybe it is some radical corps of vegans, out to change the world's eating habits by limiting the "safe" choices! But even "fringe" groups (as vegans are) like PETA go in for "showy" displays, throwing red paint on a rack of fur coats, etc. I doubt this (bird flu) is a concerted effort to destroy the poultry industry.
Probably, though, one could make a good conspiracy argument (pay attention, Helen! ) for why these "new" diseases always crop up in China first...
posted on February 8, 2004 04:50:43 PM new
How about this, Pat & KC... China could be testing all sorts of diseases on their own, to see if they can come up with some disease that's deadly. When they've got the disease down pat, they'll send it this way to destroy us all, then they'll take over our land.
posted on February 8, 2004 04:51:57 PM new
Pat, I am not so sure, the food supply has long been considered a target, what method they would employ to attain their goal, is a different issue.
posted on February 8, 2004 05:01:56 PM new
China, I doubt it, their making to much money from the U.S, however, Europe is slated to be China's economic bonanza in 2005. I am attempting to kill your conspiracy.
posted on February 8, 2004 05:13:53 PM new
Nah, Krafty, China will be in charge of Paris soon enough -- by conventional methods...
KC, the food supply, the water supply, the fuel supply (local refineries) are all easy targets and always have been. My local fresh-water reservoir is "protected" by faded Do Not Enter signs affixed to decrepit chain-link fences. Anyone who wanted to could go in right now and contaminate that reservoir undetected, with nothing more than a gallon of motor oil. It wouldn't take ricin, or anthrax, or bird flu, even, to bring this wide-open country of ours to a halt. That, in my opinion, is our greatest vulnerability -- the fact that so many of our vital resources are right out there in the open. And that's also what makes things like the Patriot Act useless as a defense against terrorism, because it'll never become illegal to buy motor oil at Grand Auto and there'll never be a way to adequately secure our water supply and freeway-bordering farmlands.
As a somewhat humorous aside: The Alameda County Sheriff is crowing about the new $320,000, 32-foot gunboat he's deployed to patrol the Oakland Estuary and other waters, looking for terrorists. It is fitted with two Heckler & Koch machine guns that fire 7.62- caliber, NATO-issue, standard military rounds.
What the San Francisco Chronicle failed to mention was howlingly reported in the Los Angeles Times today: the guns have no ammo! LOL!!!
