Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Cambodian Dead Duck Mystery Solved - Bird Flu Strikes Again!

Area in Cambodia borders Viet Nam. February 14th marks Lunar New Year which is celebrated in Cambodia, Viet Nam and China. It is as if you added Christmas, New Year, your birthday and in the US, the 4th of July and Memorial Day all together into one holiday that lasts from 3 to 10 days. And to ensure a prosperous year ahead, one MUST have duck, chicken, goose or a pig for your holiday meals. Now imagine how many ducks, geese, chickens and pigs are raised to be at their peak flavor in time to be sold "live" to millions upon millions of eager customers. Now, you understand how and why regular influenza/flu creates a new mix/mutation of flu each year in these live markets for transmission in Asia and the rest of the world. And you should understand why people are so worried that bird flu will change enough to go direct to people in a big way rather than the normal route of birds to pigs and then to people. Can you spell p-a-n-d-e-m-i-c?
Bird flu kills Takeo ducks

Sample tissue from ducks in Takeo province that died in an outbreak of a disease officials could not identify earlier this week have tested positive for the H5N1 virus, commonly known as bird flu
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