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Perhaps all this research into avian flu is making me paranoid.

I was at the gym this morning, pounding away on the treadmill, when I noticed a crow flutter out of the sky onto the grass in the playing field behind the gym The crow lay on the grass and only occasionally moved a wing when its mate landed a few feet away.

It was the way the crow almost fell out of the sky that had attracted my attention, but as it lay there, motionless, I became convinced that its behaviour wasn’t normal - it was ill, I thought.

It could be suffering from bird flu, I thought, particularly as we only live about 5 miles from the sea on the east coast of the United Kingdom.

With headlines of “second bird found in the UK with bird flu” running through my mind, I went back to look again about half an hour later. It was still lying there.

Although the UK government say that you should only report a case of suspected flu if you find three or more birds of the same species dead in the same area, I thought that the way this bird was obviously dying made this a special case.

I went to find the number to phone the authorities and when I got back, to have another look, the bird had gone!

Yep - I’m becoming paranoid - though it must be good to be vigilent.

There seems to be a strong international flavour to the avian flu news today. I suppose with no main point of focus, such as with the UK last week, news items become fragmented from various parts of the world.

The global reach, and potential threat, of avian flu is apparent from the various articles published today. Whilst it’s pleasing to read that China has not found any new cases of bird flu for the last 44 days, we see that bird flu marches onwards throughout Europe - particularly the former Eastern bloc countries such as the Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic are reporting only a small number of cases in wild birds and have not yet found any incidences of avian influenza in its commercial flocks.

The situation in Africa remains concerning as a number of countries are reporting bird flu cases. If you have ever visited some of the markets in African countries, where birds, animals and people are in close proximity - you can understand how many experts fear that this may be the venue for the H5N1 to mutate into a human transmissable form.

We must find some encouragement though, that even poor countries with limited resources are placing bird flu monitoring and prevention high on their priority lists. The responsibilty of keeping the H5N1 virus as a bird, rather than a human, disease probably rests on their shoulders.

About:
A boxer returns to the ring to keep his family alive during the depression in the 1930’s

For:
Gritty boxing action, superb acting and direction keeps you involved from start to finish. You care, you want him and his family to come through unscathed. You’ll remember it. Brilliant.

Against:
Nothing

Whilst preparing the news snippets for SurvivingFlu.com today, it became obvious that the public is receiving mixed messages from the various news media.

On the one hand we hear that no other birds tested in the UK, have been found with H5N1 bird flu, and on the other we learn that H5N1 is probably not going to be the virus that triggers a global pandemic. We feel encouraged by this, and resume our optimism that all will be OK.

Unfortunately the next article gives us a jolt as we realise what impact a flu pandemic would have on our society. 100,000 children could die, and thats just in the UK. Optimism turns to gloom, but we must realise that projections like this are important so that governments can make suitable plans to protect our way of live.

Rather than being alarmed, perhaps we should be reassured that the threat is being taken seriously and proactive measures are being put into place.

In the meantime, lets keep this whole thng in proportion. Bird flu affects birds and not humans and unless there is very close contact with infected birds, this is almost certainly how it will remain.

Apologies to those who are reading this who are not from the UK, however I have found a list of the ten most likely birds that could carry bird flu into the United Kingdom.

Published here by the BBC, this is an informative list of waterfowl which should help people distinguish susceptible birds, should they find them.

I wondered in an earlier article if seagulls are prone to bird flu. It looks like they are. According to another BBC article, “Three dead seagulls found at a boating lake in Gloucester are also being tested for the disease. A city council spokesman said they were being tested as a precaution and the risk of the gulls having died of bird flu was “minimal”.

Its pleasing that two Egyptian children have survived their ordeal with H5N1. Tamiflu was prescribed, presumably as soon as possible after admittance to hospital, and this may have been what saved them.

I personally think it is unlikely that H5N1 will mutate into a human transmissable form, however doctors in various parts of the world are starting to acquire expertise and experience in treating human bird flu victims and this can only be beneficial should people start acquiring this disease in larger numbers.

Tamiflu looks to be a key tool in fighting bird flu in humans, though a number of other drugs and vaccines are being tested, so I hope countries around the world are working to stockpile this in sufficient quantities.

I have been contacted by a number of people who are concerned about eating chicken and various meats. I’m not qualified to comment on this really, but hopefully this article on the BBC website should reassure people that the current bird flu problem “is in a wild bird, it is not in our poultry flocks. It is certainly not a food scare, there is no imminent danger.”

My own view is that considerable care is being taken to protect commercial poultry flocks and that we need have no concerns, at the moment, about the risk of bird flu contaminating chicken and other meats. Fear can do far more damage to our poultry industries, which are worth £7billion, than bird flu at this point.

There is speculation today that the dead swan found in Scotland was probably a native of the area rather than a migratory bird from another part of Europe.

The swan is a mute swan which is native to the UK, though mute swans can also be migratory.

Of course if this was a bird from the UK, then it must have caught the virus from another source. Genetic tests on the H5N1 virus that killed it show that this is the same virus that is prevalent in other European countries, so it must have been carried to the UK from Europe by a migratory bird.

In the UK we must prepare ourselves for the inevitable news that H5N1 was responsible for at least some of the deaths of the other 14 birds that are currently being tested for bird flu. I understand that 12 of these are swans.

With so much airtime in the UK being devoted, quite rightly, to the dead swan in Scotland, lets not forget that Egypt has announced its 9th case of bird flu in humans - a toddler.

When you read that the childs parents kept and bred chickens in their house, and that some of the chickens were ill, it is perhaps easy for us to think they were being foolish, particularly with bird flu prevalent in the country. However, these families often rely on their small flocks for their livelyhood. They probably had no choice, and are suffering as a result, but I hope that their child recovers very soon.

Not the scandal of the week, and maybe not a scandal at all, but the BBC is reporting that the dead swan found in Scotland wasn’t discovered yesterday, like everybody initially thought, but was discovered on 29th March. That is over a week ago!

This is alarming, not because of the likelyhood that other animals or birds could have been infected and then moved out of the local area during that week, but because if it takes the UK authorities so long to diagnose and report a case then we have little hope of containing the disease should it be found in multiple locations.

On this timescale, by the time we know for certain that a bird died from H5N1, the disease would have a week to be transmitted to others, who could take the disease into other areas.

To quote from the BBC article: “Samples from the dead bird are being investigated at the headquarters of Defra’s Veterinary Laboratories Agency at Weybridge - which is also the laboratory where all cases of bird, or avian, flu in the EU are confirmed.”

It seems that this single laboratory in the United Kingdom presents a logistical bottleneck in our ability to diagnose, track and contain cases of bird flu - samples have to be sent there from all over the UK and the EU, then logged and processed. By that time, I wonder how many other birds or animals have been infected.

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