Bird flu 'as grave a threat as terrorism'

It look's like it may be too late

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor26 June 2005

Bird flu is now as much of a danger to Britain as terrorism, ministers have been told by the Government's official emergency body.

Top officials from the Civil Contingency Secretariat (CCS), part of the Cabinet Office, told a cabinet subcommittee last week that a flu pandemic - which it believes could kill 700,000 Britons - is now one of the most serious threats facing the country.

Plans are being made to close schools and cancel sporting fixtures in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus, and official advice on how to try to avoid being infected will be ready for publication this summer.

Cobra, Britain's emergency committee, will co-ordinate attempts to fight the virus. But the Government accepts that, if the flu reaches Britain, there is no hope of stopping an epidemic, and that the only hope is to mitigate its effects.

The top-level warning comes as alarming evidence emerges from Asia that the virus, which has killed more than half of those known to have caught it, is spreading. Patchy reports from China and Vietnam suggest that the disease is affecting larger clusters of people, raising concern that it is mutating into a highly infectious strain that will sweep through the world. The World Health Organisation has warned that "the world is now in the gravest possible danger of a pandemic", while the Food and Agriculture Organisation calls it a "sword of Damocles" hanging over the globe.

Last week's warning was delivered by the CCS's head, Bruce Mann, to the cabinet subcommittee. The secretariat, which says its job is to "look for trouble", keeps tabs on about 100 potential threats from floods to major accidents in factories to a terrorist attack. It now rates bird flu as among the greatest of them all.

On the same day as the ministerial warning, Britain had its first official exercise to prepare for the epidemic. Operation Arctic Sea was staged in the East Midlands to test capabilities to deal with mass illness and death. Officials have also been scouring the country to find sites for mass mortuaries, but Sarah Webb, a regional health emergency planning adviser for the official Health Protection Agency, says that military bases which had been investigated for the purpose had been declared "off-limits" to them "because of Iraq activities".

Official advice is being prepared to help people to cut the risk of catching the disease - including simple hygiene, staying at home, and avoiding gatherings of people - and local authorities are urged to get prepared. But Steve Miller, the head of public protection for the London Borough of Newham, told a seminar organised by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health last week that there was still "some lethargy".

He said: "The biggest drawback is that people feel it is not their job, but somebody else's, or that someone will tell them what to do. We are late, but not too late."

A Killer Flu? 'Inevitable' Epidemic Could Kill Millions

A new report from Trust for America's Health found that over half a million Americans could die and over 2.3 million could be hospitalized if a moderately severe strain of a pandemic flu virus hits the U.S. Additionally, based on the model estimates, 66.9 million Americans are at risk of contracting the disease. TFAH's report, "A Killer Flu? ‘Inevitable' Epidemic Could Kill Millions" also examines shortfalls in the amount of available antiviral medication and hospital capacity to respond to an epidemic. Additionally, the report examines gaps in U.S. readiness and compares U.S. preparedness to the United Kingdom and Canadian efforts. TFAH offers detailed recommendations to help improve U.S. preparedness.

TFAH provides a series of detailed recommendations to help ensure the U.S. is better prepared regardless of whether a pandemic occurs as soon as this year or in several years. With a crisis looming, the US plan for the pandemic should be finalized and the President should be designated an official with authority to coordinate the US response across federal agencies. Other top level recommendations include taking:

Immediate steps of outbreak tracking, stockpiling medical supplies, and developing emergency communications plans;
Intermediate steps of stockpiling additional antivirals and developing surge capacity plans for hospitals and health care providers; and

Longer range steps to increase vaccine production and the development of new technologies for vaccines.
TFAH's analysis, based on the estimates of the severity of the current strain circulating in Asia, follows warnings issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) about the severity of the pandemic, "killer flu" threat. The projections are based on a modeling program developed by the CDC using WHO estimates that approximately 25 percent of countries' populations could become infected and descriptions of the severity of the strain as likely to be in the range between the levels of the extremely severe 1918 influenza pandemic and the relatively mild 1968 pandemic. Some scientists believe the current avian flu strain is on the more severe side of the possible range. The more mild and more severe estimates are also included in the appendix of TFAH's report

A nightmare scenario: 180-360 Million Deaths In a Matter Of Weeks says New York Daily News About Bird Flu

A nightmare scenario

Should we sound the alarm for a worldwide epidemic that might not occur? There is no choice with the avian flu emerging from Asia. Last week's disclosure that an Indonesian man tested positive for the bird flu that has already killed more than 50 people in Southeast Asia was just the latest chilling news about the disease. Should it develop certain genetic changes, international health experts warn, bird flu could spark a global pandemic, infecting as much of a quarter of the world's population and killing as many as 180 million to 360 million people - at least seven times the number of AIDS deaths, all within a matter of weeks.This is utterly different from ordinary flu, which kills between 1 million and 2 million people worldwide in a typical year. In the worst previous catastrophic pandemic, in 1918, more than 20 million died from the Spanish Flu. That's more than the number of people who died from the Black Death in the Middle Ages, and more people killed in 24 weeks than AIDS killed in 24 years.

There are three elements to a pandemic. First, a virus emerges from the pool of animal life that has never infected human beings, meaning no person has antibodies to fight it. Second, the virus has to make us seriously ill. Third, the virus must be capable of moving swiftly from human to human through coughing, sneezing or just a handshake.
For avian flu, the first two elements are already with us. Well over half the people who have contracted it have died. The question now is whether the virus will meet the third condition: mutating so that it can spread rapidly from human to human.

The new flu has already moved from chickens to other birds and on to pigs. The latter often serve as a vessel for mixing human and animal viruses because the receptors on the respiratory cells of pigs are similar to those of humans. This illustrates the dangers we face, because this mixture of bird flu and human flu, in an animal or a person, could cause the viruses to exchange genetic materials and create an entirely new viral strain capable of sustaining efficient human-to-human transmission.
That would be the tipping point to a pandemic.

Nobody knows just how close we might be to such a crisis, but experts are alarmed because we are singularly ill-prepared. Worldwide, we currently produce only about 300 million doses of flu vaccine a year to serve more than 6 billion people. A pandemic that began in Asia could race around the globe in days or weeks, given the number of airliners crisscrossing the oceans from Tokyo, Vietnam and Indonesia to New York, Los Angeles and London.

We should be doing a whole lot more.

First: We need operational blueprints to get various populations through one to three years of a pandemic. We must coordinate the responses of the medical community, of food providers, of transportation and of care for first responders from public health, law enforcement and emergency management at the international, federal, state and local levels.

Second: We must strengthen the World Health Organization so that it can be an accurate clearinghouse of information about the scope and location of the disease, should it begin to spread, and quell false rumors that could lead to global panic.

Third: We must track the human cases already documented so as to gain the very earliest warning of any transformation of the disease, and thus of an emerging pandemic. Days would be critical.

Fourth: The Bush administration must think of this as terrorism to the nth degree and immediately set up a senior-level emergency task force to develop a strategy. It could serve as a permanent framework for curtailing the spread of future infectious diseases.

Fifth: We must prioritize research money to develop a vaccine, expand the production of flu vaccine and stockpile antiviral medications. It would be irresponsible to begrudge time and money.

A pandemic could well bring global, national and regional economies to an abrupt halt in a world that relies on the speed and distribution of so many products. It could also lead many countries to impose useless but highly destructive quarantines that would disrupt trade, travel and production - something that has never happened with AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis. At home, many venues of human contact - schools, movie theaters, transportation hubs and businesses - would have to be shuttered.
Imagine the chaos. These killer viruses simply can't be isolated in any part of the world. If avian flu were allowed to develop into a pandemic, it would be a direct threat to our health, security and prosperity.

The word influenza derives from the Latin influentia, reflecting the belief at the time that epidemics were due to the influence of the stars. Today, we have moved far beyond that fantasy, but even so, the world is clearly not ready for an avian-flu pandemic. With the scientific consensus already shifting from if to when the next global outbreak takes place, we have no time to lose.

Originally published on June 20, 2005

Health Ministry confirms four more bird flu victims

This sure doesn't get much coverage in the US

(18-06-2005)
HA NOI — The Ministry of Health has confirmed that four more cases of H5N1 human infection were reported yesterday, bringing the nationwide total of victims to 59 since the beginning of the year.

Seven people are currently being treated at the National Institute for Clinical Research in Medicine, and 18 others have already died, the ministry reported yesterday.

Meanwhile, doctors, professors and about 300 representatives of hospitals and medical and pharmaceutical universities nationwide have concluded a two-day conference on respiratory diseases.

At the conference in Can Tho City, which ended on Thursday, participants listened to reports on four types of respiratory disease common in Viet Nam, and discussed care and treatment methods for victims. They shared knowledge gained through practical experience and examined the possibilities for more effective treatment offered by new technology.

According to the reports, four types of respiratory disease - including the bird flu virus H5N1 - account for the majority of infections, with one strain of the disease killing an estimated 2.75 million people worldwide last year, according to the World Health Organisation - comparable with the HIV/AIDS death toll in the same period. — VNS

Experts: World unprepared for flu pandemic

McClatchy News ServiceJun. 16, 2005 05:34 PM

WASHINGTON -- The world is ill-prepared for an overdue influenza pandemic that threatens to kill millions and shut down the global economy, a panel of health experts said Thursday.

The panelists urged the government to start developing plans for how to deal with the next strain of flu virus.

"Make no mistake about it: Of all the infectious diseases influenza is the lion king," said University of Minnesota public health professor Michael Osterholm. "I don't know what else to say except, 'We're screwed.'

Avian bird flu already has killed chickens in Southeast Asia, and panelists warned the virus could be poised to jump to humans in the next several years.

They couldn't predict exactly when a pandemic might strike, but they did say it would be disastrous if governments around the world don't ratchet up research and preparedness efforts immediately.

"This is not going to go away," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Get rid of the 'if.' This is going to occur."

Here in the United States, Osterholm said, the government must have specific plans in place should the virus hit. For example, it must know whether schools would close, how hospitals would handle an overflow of patients and whether planes and subways would be shut down.
It also must be prepared to deal with a total collapse of the global economy, which Americans depend on for day-to-day life, he said.
The most recent flu pandemic happened in 1918, when 30 million to 40 million people died worldwide.

That cycle could be beginning again, as the new flu strain in Asia has proved 100 percent lethal in chickens, said Laurie Garrett of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Given the amount of contact between humans and chickens there, health experts are "very nervous" about the virus spreading, Garrett said.
No humans are immune to the new strain, she said, and scientists have yet to develop a cost-effective vaccine that could be distributed worldwide.
Because the flu spreads rapidly and has historically proven so deadly, governments must act now, Fauci said.

"It's got to be a global effort to change the ingredients," he said.

Experts: World unprepared for flu pandemic

McClatchy News ServiceJun. 16, 2005 05:34 PM

WASHINGTON -- The world is ill-prepared for an overdue influenza pandemic that threatens to kill millions and shut down the global economy, a panel of health experts said Thursday.
The panelists urged the government to start developing plans for how to deal with the next strain of flu virus.
"Make no mistake about it: Of all the infectious diseases influenza is the lion king," said University of Minnesota public health professor Michael Osterholm. "I don't know what else to say except, 'We're screwed.' " advertisement
Avian bird flu already has killed chickens in Southeast Asia, and panelists warned the virus could be poised to jump to humans in the next several years.
They couldn't predict exactly when a pandemic might strike, but they did say it would be disastrous if governments around the world don't ratchet up research and preparedness efforts immediately.

"This is not going to go away," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Get rid of the 'if.' This is going to occur."

Here in the United States, Osterholm said, the government must have specific plans in place should the virus hit. For example, it must know whether schools would close, how hospitals would handle an overflow of patients and whether planes and subways would be shut down.

It also must be prepared to deal with a total collapse of the global economy, which Americans depend on for day-to-day life, he said.

The most recent flu pandemic happened in 1918, when 30 million to 40 million people died worldwide.
That cycle could be beginning again, as the new flu strain in Asia has proved 100 percent lethal in chickens, said Laurie Garrett of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Given the amount of contact between humans and chickens there, health experts are "very nervous" about the virus spreading, Garrett said.

No humans are immune to the new strain, she said, and scientists have yet to develop a cost-effective vaccine that could be distributed worldwide.

Because the flu spreads rapidly and has historically proven so deadly, governments must act now, Fauci said.
"It's got to be a global effort to change the ingredients," he said.

THE MOTHER OF ALL HOAXES?

Well how about this, finally...

MER Editorial MIDDLEEAST.ORG - Washington - 15 June: MER has never before published this story, this 'conspiracy theory' if you will. Though under much pressure over the years to do so we always held back and never published anything about this 'possibility'...until today that is. But now the fact that a ranking former Bush Administration official, in fact the man who was the top government economist in the Labor Department on 11 September 2001, has now gone public saying 9/11 may have been a historic hoax and the World Trade Towers were 'most likely' destroyed by a 'controlled demolition', causes us to reconsider. This is far too important to simply dismiss at this point. At the least we conclude this story now deserves far more attention that it has gotten in recent days with nearly the entire corporate media focused on Michael Jackson and various frivolities while this paragraph -- published this week on the UPI wire from Washington in fact -- has hardly had any attention:

A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling." Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings."

MER CALLS FOR UNPRECEDENTEDINTERNATIONAL MEDIA INVESTIGATION

We think an unprecedented international press investigation is now called for to match this unprecedented historical situation -- one totally independent of all governments, intelligence agencies, and pressure groups; and one bringing together a coalition of major international media from various political and national dispositions. What happened is a totally modern-day sui generis event with the greatest of history-changing consequences. Taking place so soon after Ariel Sharon came to power in Israel, and the Bush/Cheney Administration put so many former Israeli-Jewish lobby 'Neocons' in key power positions throughout Washington was suspicious from the start. But in the past we thought these suspicions had more to do with what the U.S. and Israeli governments really knew in advance, and what steps they were fast preparing to take whenever they had the excuse to do so regardless of the actual facts.

But now we have to add to the larger picture that there is quite a long history of major political/military deceptions and hoaxes originating both with the Israelis and from Washington. To mention just a few that history has so far unraveled includes the sinkings of the Maine and the Lusitania, the Lavon Affair, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the deceptions behind the 1967, 1982 and Gulf Wars, the Iraq-Kuwait-US invasion, the 'Oslo Peace Process', and most recently the 'Stealth Assassination' of Yasser Arafat after the assassinations of the senior Hamas leadership.

Add to this historical brew quite a few other very suspicious developments that have come to light including the jubilant Israelis caught after photographing the WTC's collapse, all the unexplained developments in Lebanon, the blatant lies and cons surrounding the Iraq invasion including Colin Powel's testimony before the Security Council, and looking ahead at the moment the considerable preparations to take down Iran one way or another. And so we conclude that such an unprecedented situation on top of such already proven lies and deceptions dateline Washington, London, and Israel, all call for an unprecedented coalition of credible major media from many countries to come together for a White Paper investigation of 9/11 focusing on the following specific issues:

1) What really happened on 9/11 and who knew what in advance?

2) Had the U.S. government prepared in advance to exploit such an event as 9/11, whether the full story is now known or not, in order to pursue geostrategic goals decided upon in advance regardless of the actual facts of the situation?

3) What is known about the behind-the-scenes contacts and coordination between the U.S. and Israeli governments, and the crucial role played by the leading American Jewish Neocons who held key power and intelligence positions in Washington at the time of 9/11?

Important comments about this issue here

Fears that new strain of bird flu will kill millions

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor12 June 2005

International experts fear that bird flu is mutating into a strain that will cause a worldwide pandemic, killing many millions of people after the mass deaths of wild birds in China.

Unconfirmed reports say that more than 100 people have also died, suggesting that the virus may have evolved to pass from person to person, breaking the final barrier preventing a worldwide catastrophe.

The Chinese government, while denying the reports of human deaths, has adopted emergency measures in Xinjiang, its remote north-western province, and has sealed off affected areas with roadblocks and closed all nature reserves.

"We are worried," says Noureddin Mona, of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's representatives in Beijing. "We should be prepared for the worst."

Shigeru Omi, of the World Health Organisation's regional director for the western Pacific, says "the virus has become highly pathogenic to more and more species".

"It remains unstable, unpredictable, and very versatile.
"Anything can happen. Judging from the way the virus has behaved, it may have new and unpleasant surprises in store for us."

Experts have long believed that the virus is spread by wild birds, but until now they have been thought to be immune to its effects. Last month, however, more than 1,000 were found to have died from the flu at the Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve. A second outbreak, in Tacheng city - on the border with Kazakhstan, 1,000 miles east of the lake - infected more than 1,000 domestic geese, of which 460 died.

A Chinese-language website called Boxun News and an internet medical alert system called pro-MED report that 200 people have been infected, of whom 121 died. The two sites first alerted the world to the Sars outbreak in 2003 when the Chinese authorities denied it.

China similarly denies that any people have been infected. But the government admits to alerting its heath departments around the province to prevent the spread of the disease and to opening special departments in hospitals for "screening patients with fever".

Close encounters of the fluttering kind: a rise in bird attacks

By Patrik Jonsson

Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor RALEIGH, N.C. –
US Postal carrier Keith Cooper is used to dogs sneering from behind metal gates. He's used to uncivil people who expect to find something in their mailbox and then don't.

But this week, as he trundled across Boylan Heights in this Southern city, he ran into a new problem: rambunctious birds. "I was ducking this way, then ducking that way, trying to get away," Mr. Cooper says, recalling a few frenzied seconds where beaks flashed like tiny daggers. "I had no idea what was going on." It turned out to be an entire Tippi Hedron day. He wasn't divebombed just once, but three times in three different parts of the city.

Nor is Cooper the only one seemingly in the flight path of B-52 birds these days. For some inexplicable reason, from Houston to Washington, it's been the year of aggressive mockingbirds, crows, hawks, and even woodpeckers.

To a noticeable degree, especially by those getting strafed, it seems like Alfred Hitchcock, the reality series.
Some of the incidents are, admittedly, a bit scary. One Houston lawyer this spring found himself getting pecked in the face. Even worse, police had to close down an entire downtown Houston street in late May after gang of grackles attacked pedestrians, knocking some of them down.

"Birds, they're on the sidewalk, but they're usually not attacking people," says Bea McCann of the Houston Police Department. She notes that the recent attacks were the first she's ever heard of in the city.
In Washington, bloggers last week were busy cataloguing the adventures of an aggressive hawk that was buzzing cars.

In upstate New York, a high-strung woodpecker has destroyed dozens of car mirrors - angered, apparently, by his own image and racking up insurance premiums.

"There's been an increase in the number of times that people report incidents like, 'I had this weird thing happen where a bird attacked me,' " says Alicia Craig, director of the Bird Conservation Alliance in Indianapolis.[...]

link to full story

Australia on alert over flu pandemic

18:00 AEST Mon Jun 6 2005
Sheryl Taylor

Be alert not alarmed that's the Health Minister's message about a possibly devastating flu outbreak.

Revealing a plan to deal with the crisis Tony Abbott said Australia is at greater risk than ever from a deadly new strain which could kill thousands of people.

According to the federal government, the WHO, which has been carefully monitoring the spread of bird flu in Asia, believes the world is closer than it’s ever been to a new pandemic outbreak. It has been calling on all governments to develop or refine pandemic plans.

The government has put on alert all emergency health workers, viral surveillance laboratories, and GPs, issuing 35,000 kits on how to fight the expected flu pandemic.

If Australians aren't prepared, then just as the Spanish flu pandemic of 1919 wiped out thousands, we could expect the same. It is estimated that a major influenza pandemic could lead to 2.6m Australians seeking medical attention, 58,000 needing hospitalisation and 13,000 deaths.

To avoid such a tragic outcome Australia has in readiness, a huge stockpile of anti-viral treatments for general flu symptoms. But a pandemic is a global outbreak of a new flu strain which no one will have immunity to. New vaccines will have to be developed and the longer that takes, the more grim the outcome.
“If it happens, no one who lives through it will forget it,” Health Minister Tony Abbott warned, saying the risk comes from the potentially deadly bird flu in Asia, “if it mutates, into a form which is very easy for humans to catch, then we have a pandemic flu outbreak.”

Apart from placing enormous pressure on hospitals and healthcare centres, a pandemic could drain existing stockpiles of treatments and vaccines, forcing the government to enact special legislation to enlist support from the private sector.
© National Nine News 2005

Photos of 1000's of Bird Flu Deaths on Bird Island Qinghai China

Recombinomics CommentaryJune 3, 2005

The latest report from Abundant News has two photos of dead or dying birds on Bird (Naio) Island in Qinghai Lake. In the close shot, few birds are standing and most that are not standing appear to be dead or dying. There are no birds flying. In the longer shot there appear to be thousands of birds on the ground and none in the air. It seems likely that the number dead or dying is in the thousands.

The photos are dated May 27, and if accurate, would indicate that the die-off is continuing because the birds in the picture appear to be of recent deaths or birds that are suffocating. The initial reports indicated 150 bar headed geese were found dead on May 4 and another 28 were found in the following few days. Thus, it would seem that birds have been dying for three weeks and the number in these two pictures would suggest that the reported 8000 dead birds is a low number that may still be increasing.
The massive H5N1 die off is without precedent and suggests that the H5N1 is quite infectious and is killing water birds that are normally not affected by H5N1.

The large numbers of dead birds, verified by photos, indicate that an updated report to OIE is warranted. The report of May 21 describes 519 bird flu deaths, and the number dead in this one picture far exceeds that number.

Thus, the report on over 8000 bird deaths was quite specific with regard to the number of dead birds as well as the large number of species. The newly released pictures appear to back up these numbers.

Investigations by third parties on the ground in Qinghai Province appear to be long overdue. These investigations should focus on the claims of massive bird deaths as well as deaths in domestic animals, tourists, and residents near the Qinghai Lake Nature Reserve.

Risk of bird flu 'higher than ever'

June 02, 2005

THE risk of avian influenza, or bird flu, entering northern Australia through the Northern Territory is higher than ever, Menzies School of Health Research's Bart Currie said yesterday.
And he predicts up to 44,000 people could die within eight weeks if the disease hit our shores without a vaccine to prevent its spread. Professor Currie, who is the infectious diseases physician at Royal Darwin Hospital, was speaking at the Charles Darwin Symposium Series 2005 yesterday.
He said bird flu was Australia's No. 1 communicable disease threat and the likelihood of the disease spreading was now at its highest.
"There are two billion domestic ducks in Asia," he said. "And the ducks are the ultimate source because it comes from wild birds
into domestic ducks so the risk of it happening is higher than ever.
"Sooner or later it will mutate into something much more dangerous to humans."
He said the Federal Government was taking the disease threat seriously, as was the Territory Government.
Professor Currie said the threat to the NT was from people coming in from South-East Asia.
"We are worried that someone could arrive who is highly infectious with this new virulent flu, land in Darwin Airport having infected the people on the plane, who then disperse it to the northern suburbs through their families.
"Within a week or two of that person landing in Darwin we could have a major outbreak on our hands.
"The impact on hospital infrastructure will be greater than any other health threat ever experienced."
Professor Currie also spoke of the potential threat of Japanese encephalitis outbreak in the NT through mosquitoes carried by monsoonal winds from Papua New Guinea

Canada Finds Bird Flu Strain On BC Turkey Farm

USAgNet - 06/01/2005
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has quarantined a turkey layer farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia based on preliminary results from the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, indicating the presence of the H3 influenza virus in the flock.
The turkey farm is near a swine farm that recently experienced an H3 influenza infection and the virus is suspected to have originated from swine. Transmission of this influenza strain between swine and turkeys is a danger that has been seen before.
This low pathogenic H3 virus is a milder form of virus and has not been known to mutate into high pathogenic avian influenza as the H7N3 strain did last year in the Fraser Valley. [...]

Signs Of The Times