Introduction
Bird flu also known as avian flu is caused by viruses adapted to birds. This group of influenza belongs to the group A virus. All strains, but not all subtypes are adapted from birds but this is not where we get the A strain from, because it does not stand for Avian. They are preferential to that animal but not all of the strains come from birds.
History
The bird flu is spread by handling dead infected birds and not washing your hands after. Most wild birds have a form of H5N1, so this would not be an issue. It is when the wild birds come into contact with domesticated birds like chickens and turkeys that the contamination starts to spread and this is where the issue comes from. The spread of the disease can happen pretty fast if the chickens and the turkeys are together in close quarters. This makes an outbreak quickly spread. There is a large threat in Asia because there is infected poultry and they do not have the same sanitary conditions that the United States would have at their outside markets. There is also the illegal poultry market between Europe and Asia and this can lead to spread. Infections followed transportation from railroads and along the boarders from the poultry trading that goes on. There was one outbreak of the bird flu in Texas in 2004, but it was quickly contained.
Features
A pandemic of bird flu usually has both of the characteristics of being from birds and humans. It does contain both of the strains. The last pandemic that occurred also involved pigs, birds and humans. Pigs were considered to be the hose of the disease. H5N1 has grown into a bird flu strain and it is considered to be the most deadly strain. It is still evolving and is spreading and becoming more deadly. The United States has taken care to carefully monitor the infected poultry that comes into the United States. Culling of the flock will and can be done if the HAP 1 is detected. In 2007, H5N1 outbreaks have been reported in Bangladesh, with only one case being reported in a human who recovered. In 2011 there were three reports of children all the age of five who got the bird flu. They had normal symptoms of the flu- fever, runny nose and cough. All recovered without complications or having to be hospitalized. All three reportedly had contact with chicken that were infected with bird flu.
Tips and comments
The United States needs to make sure that it keeps up the quality control that is in place now. It seems that other countries are having issues with bird flu. We need to make sure that if an outbreak happens here, that we do what we must to keep it contained. This may mean that we will have to up the number of inspections that are at the poultry farms here in the United States, All that it would take for an epidemic of bird flu to start spreading is one person comes in contact with an infected bird, and they spread it to the next human.
