Bird Flu Hits Pennsylvania!
It's time to PANIC! Take your SUV, or rent one if necessary, and head to the nearest Sam's Club and buy all their bottled water and toilet paper!
No wait! False Alarm!
Wild ducks in Pennsylvania have tested positive for bird flu, but NOT the deadly Asian strain that has ravaged poultry and killed at least 141 people worldwide, the Agriculture Department said Saturday.
The mallards, which were sampled Aug. 28 in Crawford County, Pa., showed no signs of sickness - another indication that they were not exposed to the virulent Asian H5N1 strain.
The low-grade strain of H5N1 has been found many times in North American wild birds and poses no threat to people, but officials expect the deadlier strain to reach the continent this year.
"It is possible that these birds were not infected with an H5N1 strain, but instead with two separate avian influenza viruses, one containing H5 and the other containing N1," the department said. Further testing is under way at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.The ducks were sampled as part of the government's effort to test as many as 100,000 wild birds.
posted by Scott @ 9/04/2006
2 comments
2 Comments:
Any manifestation of the Bird Flu virus, in any of its versions, is a reason to be worried.
Now that dogs, cats and other mammals are getting infected by the H5N1 virus, it increases the possibility of further mutation of the virus.
Each small mutation decreases the odds against the H5N1 mutating in to a human virus.
The-Best-Bird-Flu-Blogs team.
www.birdflubreakingnews.com
OK! OK! I'll start worrying. But not today - it's a holiday. Maybe tomorrow. But probably about something other than bird flu.
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