GETS Funky Flu Chickens JPN!

[Taro Toporific]

I feel sorry for my local okonomiyaki place where business has dropped 60% because of the avian flu and dead crows on the news 24/7. Hell, eggs are now 99yen and less in the stores now (10-egg carton in Japan). You can't even get sick from eating PROSSIBLY virus-exposed chicken meat and eggs. Sheesh.

Cooking chicken at 75 C for 1 minute kills bird flu virusMedical News Today, UK - 11 March
The Infectious Disease Surveillance Center of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Tuesday the avian influenza virus can be destroyed by cooking chicken meat for at least one minute at a temperature of 75 C or higher.
The center added that there was no reason to be overly concerned by the recent bird flu epidemic because no infection from eating virus-infected chicken meat and eggs has been reported.

[Taro Toporific]

News Reporters Blamed for Spread of Chicken FluThe Weekly Post - Mar 15 - Mar 21, 2004
Chicken flu is spreading throughout Japan. In one incident in Kyoto, more than 100,000 chickens died in the epidemic.
The Japanese government should have taken all possible measures to prevent it before it spread, however, as usual, neither the Ministry of Agriculture and Fishery nor the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, had done it. .....reporters rushed to the farm. When they entered the farm for reporting and taking news photos, their shoes, clothes and skin must have been infected by the chicken flu virus.
The reporters did not clean droppings and ground soil they picked up at the chicken farm.

[cstaylor]

Nice try by the J-Gov to squelch the fourth estate. Maybe if their lazy departments mobilized faster to these sites, contamination wouldn't occur.

[cliffy]

I grew up near many chicken and egg farms that had a scare with chicken flu in the late seventies in Australia. The Govenment departments put in place a 50 yard exclusion zone around ANY quarantined area, a true no-go area for any one, with access points, one per area with full decontamination/washdown setups. As I said, NO-GO area, but some female Journo's (full card carrying radical feminists*) entered at night to get the scoop as nothing was allowed out to contain the virus within the decontamination area. Well they got their pictures and first hand views, but had all of their equipment (camera's, notebooks, outer clothing and underwear) siezed and incinerated and were given decontamination showers BEFORE being allowed to dress in borrowed clothing to be arrested for doing the silly act. This little idiot act got more cover than the very serious bird flu from the media, most along the line of "we don't support this" but god it's funny!


* the only defence given that I can remember was " We are female, the male rules do not apply to us!" Also as I was very young at the time my memories may not be fully accurate as to the full details and a net search gave only pay-per-view archive references that I am too cheap to pay for!

[Taro Toporific]

UPDATE from an avian admirer...

Japanese Hold 'Funeral' for Chickens
Wed Apr 28, 5:39 PM ET Associated Press
TOKYO -Dressed in a black suit and tie, a man asked the roomful of mourners to bow their heads. For a minute, they stood and faced the brightly lit altar in silence. Arranged by the Agriculture Ministry and the poultry industry, Wednesday's solemn ceremony at a Tokyo hotel honored hundreds of thousands of chickens slaughtered since a deadly bird flu was discovered here in January.

[DJEB]

[Mulboyne]

CNN: WHO warns of dire flu pandemic
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The World Health Organization has issued a dramatic warning that bird flu will trigger an international pandemic that could kill up to seven million people. The influenza pandemic could occur anywhere from next week to the coming years, WHO said.
Even with the best case scenario, the most optimistic scenario, the pandemic will cause a public health emergency with estimates which will put the number of deaths in the range of two and seven million," said Klaus Stohr, "The number of people affected will go beyond billions because between 25 percent and 30 percent will fall ill."
Stohr said if bird flu triggers the next pandemic, the virus would likely originate in Asia. "An influenza pandemic will spare nobody. Every country will be affected," he said.
...Health ministers and senior officials from 10 Southeast Asian countries, along with China, Japan and South Korea, are among the more than 100 people attending this week's meeting to develop strategies against flu and other infectious diseases.

[Marked Trail]

Kyoto farm worker had bird flu
State admits four others at site may have been infected
Japan Times Dec 23
One person caught the bird flu virus while working at a contaminated poultry farm after an outbreak in Japan last February, in the first case of human infection confirmed in Japan, the government said Wednesday.
The Health Ministry said blood samples taken from five Japanese...

[GuyJean]

[Captain Japan]

Japan has human bird flu case
BBC

Japan's health ministry has confirmed the country's first instance of a human catching the bird flu virus.

Officials think four other people have probably caught the disease too.

None have developed any serious symptoms, and the ministry has discounted the possibility of the infection spreading.

Bird flu has swept through Asia this year, causing the deaths of more than 30 people. Millions of chickens have been culled as a preventative measure.

Kyoto farm worker had bird flu
Japan Times

One person caught the bird flu virus while working at a contaminated poultry farm after an outbreak in Japan last February, in the first case of human infection confirmed in Japan, the government said Wednesday.

The Health Ministry said blood samples taken from five Japanese earlier this year were tested for avian influenza, and one had antibodies for the disease, confirming the infection. The four others were probably infected but tests weren't conclusive.

It was the first confirmed case of human infection from the disease in Japan, the ministry said in a statement, which did not reveal when the confirmation was made.

[This is a pen]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Avian flu poses the single biggest threat to the world right now and health officials may not yet have all the tools they need to fight it, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday.


Vaccine efforts are still focused on garden-variety influenza, which kills 36,000 Americans every year, and it would be impossible, in case of an avian flu epidemic, to switch gears quickly to make a special avian flu vaccine, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said.


"This is a very ominous situation for the globe," Gerberding told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, calling it the "most important threat that we are facing right now."....more

[Mulboyne]

ABC: Japan Found Bird Flu in Flies from 2004 Outbreak
Japanese researchers found flies infected with the bird flu virus after an outbreak among chickens in Japan last year, a Health Ministry official said on Tuesday, a finding that underscores the ability of the deadly virus to jump between species. Besides having killed dozens of humans and caused the cull of millions of wild and farmed birds across Asia, the H5N1 strain has been known to infect other species such as cats and leopards. While there was no risk of humans catching the bird flu virus from flies, the possibility that flies could spread the virus among birds could not be ruled out and they should be exterminated in any future bird flu outbreaks, the official said.

[GuyJean]

Fresh Bird Flu Outbreak in Japan Prompts Chicken Kill
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1074467

Local authorities in southwestern Japan will begin incinerating 12,000 dead chickens on a farm later on Monday as part of efforts to stop the spread of a recent bird flu outbreak, an official said.

"Incineration of the poultry's 12,000 chickens will begin this evening and last until tomorrow," said Hisanori Ogura, an agricultural official of Miyazaki prefecture.

"So far, we have not received any reports of spread of the outbreak," Ogura said. "Also, there has been no panic among local residents."

On Saturday, the government confirmed the outbreak after 3,900 chickens were found dead at the farm in the prefecture, some 900 kilometres southwest of Tokyo.

But it was still not clear if the outbreak involved the H5N1 strain, which is potentially deadly to humans.

GJ

[GuyJean]

..But it was still not clear if the outbreak involved the H5N1 strain, which is potentially deadly to humans.

H5N1 Detected in Southern Japan
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/01/16/birdflu.japan.ap/index.html

..Tests have confirmed that bird flu detected in chickens in southern Japan was the virulent H5N1 strain that has been blamed for more than 160 human deaths worldwide, the Japanese Agricultural Ministry said Tuesday.

About 4,000 chickens died last week at a farm in Kiyotake town in Miyazaki state. Earlier test results Saturday only confirmed the bird flu strain was an H5 virus but not which one.

On Tuesday, further tests by the National Institute of Animal Health near Tokyo identified the virus as H5N1, Agricultural Ministry official Hiroyuki Ozono said.

Miyazaki officials on Monday burned all the dead birds and 8,000 surviving chickens at the farm.

The government has banned the shipment of eggs and nearly 200,000 chickens at 16 farms within about a 6-mile radius of the affected farm, where local authorities were to take further disinfectant measures Tuesday..

Do I foresee a hanging chicken farmer in Japan's future?

GJ

[GuyJean]

Japan Confirms 2nd Case of H5N1
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/01/27/japan.birdflu.reut/index.html

An outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in southwestern Japan was caused by the H5N1 strain, farm ministry officials said on Saturday, confirming the second such case in Japan this month.

There have been no reported cases of human infection.

Local officials were in the process of slaughtering all 50,000 birds on the farm after 3,200 of them died of the disease. Another 50,000 at an adjacent farm will also be slaughtered as a precautionary measure, a local official said.

Earlier tests had shown chickens on the farm in Miyazaki prefecture were infected with an H5 subtype of bird flu virus, but further testing had been needed to determine whether it was the H5N1 strain...

It's the '5N1'!..

GJ