Bird flu found in South American parrot
Oct. 21st, 2005 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asterrocIn the UK, a parrot imported from South America tested positive for bird flu. They haven't yet narrowed it down to the most virulent / human deadly version H5N1, but they know it's at least an H5.
This scares me. Bird flu is IN THE AMERICAS. I'm not worried for me - humans rarely catch avian influenza. But if it comes to North America, Peeper will die. There's really no way of getting around this. If H5 comes to the US, it spreads easily among birds and there's a good chance that it will somehow get into the house and kill her. If H5N1 comes to the US, I expect farm birds will be culled, and I wouldn't be surprised if pet birds were too. And sadly, I would probably willingly turn her in to a cull. I don't want to be the one responsible for loosing a mutated human transmissable H5N1 on the world. Peeper is 15, she is old, she has lived a full life. :( I don't want it to happen though.
ETA (Edited This After):![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tacotortoise sanely points out to me that bird flu is mostly transmitted between humans and birds in close contact with each other. While Peeper and I might spread germs between us, as long as I'm not in close contact w/ other birds, I shouldn't pick up any/many of the germs to pass on to her. Barring a cull, she'd likely be safe, and you KNOW I would become totally obsessive compulsive about things like leaving clothes in the foyer, washing my hands as soon as I entered the house, and not allowing Peeper outside the bedroom...
This scares me. Bird flu is IN THE AMERICAS. I'm not worried for me - humans rarely catch avian influenza. But if it comes to North America, Peeper will die. There's really no way of getting around this. If H5 comes to the US, it spreads easily among birds and there's a good chance that it will somehow get into the house and kill her. If H5N1 comes to the US, I expect farm birds will be culled, and I wouldn't be surprised if pet birds were too. And sadly, I would probably willingly turn her in to a cull. I don't want to be the one responsible for loosing a mutated human transmissable H5N1 on the world. Peeper is 15, she is old, she has lived a full life. :( I don't want it to happen though.
ETA (Edited This After):
tacotortoise sanely points out to me that bird flu is mostly transmitted between humans and birds in close contact with each other. While Peeper and I might spread germs between us, as long as I'm not in close contact w/ other birds, I shouldn't pick up any/many of the germs to pass on to her. Barring a cull, she'd likely be safe, and you KNOW I would become totally obsessive compulsive about things like leaving clothes in the foyer, washing my hands as soon as I entered the house, and not allowing Peeper outside the bedroom...
