Bird flu - now it's here what precautions will you take?

[jmum6]

Now it's reported in Scotland it's only a matter of time before it works it way south.

So will you take any precautions?

My mum and dad keep free range chickens, bantams and parakeets, should I carry on visiting with a 7month old ds?

There isn't a vaccine for humans. Tamiflu is, I think, an anti-viral thingy, NOT a vaccine. You can take it and it may help you get better, but it won't ptotect you from getting it in the firt place.

fmf - we know. i was just asking if there was a bird vaccine and expat says there is.

I bought Charlie (African Grey) a harness a couple of days ago as the weather was perking up and I was going to take him out - no way will that be happening now!

sorry Lasenora

If it wasn't for my mum and dad and their bloody chickens I wouldn't be worried about day to day life. But they have intimate contact with different birds and it does worry me.

If I didn't have ds then I probably wouldn't be worried at all.

My sister lives outside Houston in sort of a hick, country area. Her husband was able to pick up a kit for a seriously cool chicken run and another kit for a proper coop - which also houses their rabbits and guinea pigs at night, too, safe from the coyotes.

A local vet is already offering vaccinations to domestic poultry and fowl.

Are English vets offering flu jabs to birds?

Dunno, but they have been ordered for all domestic poultry in France, jmum.

H5N1 it is then.

I have foreign Government guidelines on what happens now etc. Basically cooking kills it, always wash your hands etc Simple stuff. The WHO website has more info if you need to check. HOWEVER, the International schools here have 'removed' all poultry from the school farms etc.

We had it in the country next door where they were building walls stuffed full of dead birds so as not be caught by the authorities!

Better to be safe than sorry - do you really think the authorities are going to tell us the 100% truth? I don't expect they even know what to do themselves.

Tamiflu as has been mentioned and it is the only 'medication' so far that has been made available. We have had sitting in our fridge for about 8 months - v paranoid MIL.

I will be taking care not to drink raw duck's blood soup, ban DS from playing with dead chicken heads, and make sure that none of us breathes in or ingest bird faeces.

It's going to take the fun out of Easter.

Terribly worded posting!

Blu, you took the words right out of my mouth!

Lol @ Blu !

I'm not that concerned tbh. Have got chicken for tea.

guess that you don't have a ca then blu

I'm going to tell my cat to catch mice in future and leave the featherd stuff alone

Written a couple of months ago, but \link{http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CAF8F.htm\a great article on bird flu and our chicken little society}.

I liked these paragraphs from it in particular:

"For a start, the notion of uncontrollable new diseases and viral strains emerging to threaten civilisation has been a mainstay of health debates in the West for some time. Despite the fact that we live longer and healthier lives than ever before, thanks in part to the wonders of modern medicine, our loss of faith in society's achievements means that we fear the worst from any passing bacteria. Ever since we were told that heterosexual AIDS would cause carnage across Western societies, it seems there has always been a possible disease-related disaster just around the corner. We have been warned about the emergence of new super bugs, even new plagues. We have been told to expect massive death tolls from new strains such as vCJD - the human form of mad cow disease - from such alien diseases as ebola or the flesh-eating bug, Necrotising fasciitis, and from fresh global epidemics such as SARS.

The failure of each of these in turn to wreak the predicted devastation in the West has done nothing to stop the stream of disease scares. As each one fades from the headlines, another has come along to take its place. It seems that we have had to live with the constant expectation of medical catastrophe, with experts always assuming the worst-case scenario to be the most likely."

Utopia- how come you've got tamiflu in your fridge? Where are you from?

You know you could make a killing on the blackmarket :o

Hmm we have pigeons who poo from a tree outside our house and it gets all over the pavement and on our wall sometimes.

May have to chop the tree or spray with anti pigeon stuff - what do birds hate?

jmum - mmmmmm waiting for a rainy day! We have doses for wach of us (x5) but the fact that the kids can't have it as they are too young, really does pose a rather good opportunity - ebay perhaps??

Have you read the twits? By roald dahl? You could put glue on the tree and have pidgeon pie for tea!!

So, if you see a dead pigeon (not hit & run) are you supposed to tell someone then?

From reading these posts it makes it look as I am absolutely paranoid - not at all just been living with it for the past couple of months, so I know how the authorities become.

Bubblerock - amusingly if you see ONE dead swan, ONE dead goose or ONE dead duck THEN call DEFRA - don't call about anything else dead unless there are 3 of them together! WTF?

I suppose there is a mixture of "a partridge in a pear tree" and Ghostbusters in there.....

Ahh ok then, I shall not let them know of the unfortunate pigeon that me and DS saw over the edge of the pier - we found it very strange as it seemed to have flown into the rocks as its legs were stuck in the air!

oh poo - it was h5n1 then