Are the plague carriers of old the new carriers of Bird flu?
The problem is that in many areas of the world, one of the methods used to dispose of birds suspected of , or infected with, the bird flu, is incineration. Which can be much too expensive for the local population to afford. The preferred disposal method in these areas is to bury the dead birds with any feed they may have come in contact with.
The problem with this is that removing the feed can in some cases, also remove the rat’s food. As anyone who has worked in or lived on a farm can tell you, rodents are a big problem. They will eat right through bags of feed to get to their food source, as well as eat any leftover feed on the ground or in troughs that are used to feed the livestock.
When this feed is removed, they will look elsewhere, including underground. This means there is a very good chance they will eat some of the feed that was buried with the infected birds, and rats being what they are will also eat the dead birds.
In the United States, The UK and most European countries, most farms have cats to keep down the rat and mouse population, so this sort of thing might be a bit far fetched. Although Germany had a few cases of cats catching the bird flu and dying. [Story link]
Kind of like that old childhood fairy tale, “The house that jack built”. Most will know what I mean, if you don’t then do a search for “The house that jack built” on one of the search engines, expand your knowledge.
But in other countries where Chickens are the lifeblood of the local villages, the likelihood of a rat catching the bird flu virus in an infected zone, is much higher. This is just supposition on my part, but with the bird flu spreading to humans, cats , stone martins and minks one can never be too sure about anything.
Written by, John Thompson
All rights reserved, 2006
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