H5N1's two strains: what's the difference?
tractionpads
I've been emailing a group of poultry experts around the world about
the PoultryMarket Flu (which seems a more correct name for it). This
thing clearly is a result of crowded poultry market conditions in areas
where poverty dictates that wasting food is worse than taking a chance
on consuming infected poultry. Infected birds are brought to market
even though obviously sick, are butchered, and sold to the public. The
crowded conditions of the poultry market let the disease jump from one
bird to hundreds. The infected birds are then taken back to the farms,
where they can infect more birds.
The only people getting sick are the poultry butchers who handle the
blood of the infected birds. They go ahead and butcher even the
obviously-sick birds, due to the ethic of not wasting any food. All
the people who have died have been poultry butchers, with perhaps two
dubiously-reported exceptions. This report comes from a very
successful natural poultry producer in Southeast Asia whom I know well
from years of Internet rapport.
According to Science News magazine
(http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050910/bob10.asp) there are at
least two strains of H5N1 -- one before 2002 and one appearing after
2002. How does anyone determine the difference by lab tests, I wonder?
The older strain, pre-2002, has been in wild birds for millions of
years. But the newer strain of the same virus is very lethal to
domestic poultry in Asia, while remaining non-lethal to its wild bird
hosts. In other words, it can travel in wild birds and not make them
sick, but if those birds connect with Marketplace poultry, the disease
can become highly pathological. Or so the claim goes.
I don't think the mainstream media is aware of the distinction between
the two strains of H5N1. They keep reporting that H5N1 has been found
here, there and everywhere. Of course it will be found! It has been
in wild birds for millions of years!!! Why don't they make a clear
distinction between the highly pathological strain of H5N1, and the
ancient, non-lethal strain? Or have I missed it??
Anyway, happy to find your group.
Kim Salisbury