Bird Flu

[lady_p_gold]

Well they are saying all these things about it hasn't gone from humans to humans etc. but I seem to remember them saying much the same about BSE .. anyway .. my question is .. are they still allowing bird to be imported into this country for the pet trade - something which I find distasteful anyway .. but I would be interested if anyone in the know from Heathrow or something could tell me. If they are still being imported or stopping here in transit .. does anyone know their true history ???

[qapmoc]

Hi,  It doesn't really matter what comes through the airports because wild birds migrate long distances and don't respect border controls!!  already the H5N1 virus has been found in Turkey and this most likely was from migrating birds and Turkey is only a short hop from southern Europe.  You should worry most about humans because if the Virus become human-human transmissible and a pandemic starts you can bet that everybody will try to get away and take the virus back to their home countries.     

[lady_p_gold]

Oh well thank you for explaining that ...  it makes it more clear, but still worrying !!!

[piccadilly]

I think it's all press and media paranoia, trying to get people paranoid and anxious

[qapmoc]

Hi Piccadilly,  Sorry to disagree with you but if it is paranoia then it is for a good reason,  look at the history of influenza and you will see that it is not just like a "bad cold" but can be a really dangerous virus, the 1918 pandemic hit every country in the world and killed 1,000,000's of people, it was called Spanish Flu but is now known to have originated in China.  note that in 1918 there were NO - NONE - ZERO commercial aircraft in the world, airtravel just did not exist then,   now you can go from China to UK then USA within 24Hrs.