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There is an article in todays Gulf News that says everyone in Abu Dhabi who owns a pet bird (parrot, chicken, duck etc) must have it destroyed immediately.

As a bird lover, I find this unbelievable and totally inhumane especially for domesticated parrots that may never be exposed to outside air therefore cannot contract the disease.

Has anyone heard if this is going to happen in Dubai, I think the government should test the poor animals first, not cull a huge amount of defensless birds that may never be in contact with the disease.

That's totally insane, how caqn you destroy something which you know will not have come into contact with any infected animals.

Talk about short sighted. It's not the domestic birds that are the problem, it's the migratory birds and those being imported illegally.

That's like saying lets kill all people just cause they might get aids - think about it.

Yep, that is very sad. I have a friend who loves her pet parrots and she isnt going to "destroy" them. Really crazy the attitude of these people!

The virus can be carried by anything, even a mosquito. A pet bird that contracts the virus would almost definatly come in to contact with humans - if the virus meets a human with a flu it will mutate and become an epidemic, will probably then kill a good percentage of this population.

aubreyg wrote:There is an article in todays Gulf News that says everyone in Abu Dhabi who owns a pet bird (parrot, chicken, duck etc) must have it destroyed immediately.

As a bird lover, I find this unbelievable and totally inhumane especially for domesticated parrots that may never be exposed to outside air therefore cannot contract the disease.

Has anyone heard if this is going to happen in Dubai, I think the government should test the poor animals first, not cull a huge amount of defensless birds that may never be in contact with the disease.

Yeh its really sad.... & the article also stated that the municipality has as many as 3 million vaccine which they will give to every household that has a bird pet, pet shops.. etc.. so that the people are not contagious to the disease.

Ok here comes the science bit! All birds carry the bird flu strain remaining dormant, just as all people carry and can contract the flu virus. But the problem comes when it mutates and becomes seriously harmful. Yes it does have an airborne transmission factor, but if you have an animals which is always kept in doors and have never come into contact with an infected animal then the risk is minimal. Bird flu is harmless to humans unless it's the mutated form.

Now if you're going to destroy ALL birds, then what the heck are you going to do about the wild ones? They are more at risk than a bird who is always kept indoors, you can't capture and cull all migratory birds can you? And it's the people bringing animals in illegally, by-passing quarantine that are the biggest problem.

Now with regard to the vaccine, only one company is licenced to manufacture and distribute it and their supplies are very low, they've requested that other companies be allowed to make it. BUT the problem comes if the virus mutates into another strain again, for example with the annual flu vaccines for the young and elderly in many countries, medics have to predict which strain will be the most problematic that year, there are so many and if they don't get the right one, as there are thousands of strains of flu, then you have a problem. Most people complain of fluey symptons but trust me if you've ever experienced full blown flu, it knocks you for six and you're very ill for weeks.

Destroying all birds because of avian flu is not the answer and is a panic move.

After saying all this, the ministry in Abu Dhabi have done a u-turn and said they won't do it.

This is very good to get the knowledge regarding the bird flu which is very serious topic this time .This comes from the influenza virus which spreads very fast due to the special enzyme .Tamiflu and Relenza are very well known medication for this problem and doing very great job for relief.
Please go through the page for more information...

http://www.drugdelivery.ca/s33713-s-RELENZA.aspx
And
http://www.drugdelivery.ca/s3353-s-TAMIFLU.aspx

do birds sneeze ?

MaaaD wrote:do birds sneeze ?

No but they do fart...

they cant kill what they cant find!

hey, I heard this:

bird flu does not affect people who eat it (ill chicken), because when you cook the chicken, the bacteria dies.......

how true is that?