Am I being silly - bird flu

[Tadah2]

Happy for people to tell me I’m being silly, but I’m pregnant and I took my daughter to feed the ducks and she dropped all her duck feed on the floor and got upset - so I picked it up off the floor (and pushed some of it into the pond), and there were bird droppings underneath. I’m now worried about bird flu. There were signs up about it, but they didn’t say not to feed the ducks. My daughter then (as with any toddler) put her hand in her mouth and I got some dusts in my eye so rubbed it (and I have some cuts on my hand) I’ve now come back and washed my hands. Should I be worried? I’m assuming not, but I’m panicking.

Hiya! Hope you're ok. I work in a wildlife hospital so deal with possible bird flu cases daily & im 21 weeks pregnant. Although they're telling me to avoid birds where possible the overall risk is very low. Currently AI is only really effecting Gulls, cases in waterfowl are significantly lower. (That being said always practice caution). As long as you didn't put your hands in your mouth with the faeces on them & washed them really thoroughly you'll be fine. Human infection is very low & when people do catch it it's because they're inside a shed full of thousands of poorly kept infected poultry with no PPE on. I have been out kayaking on rivers with swans and ducks etc during my pregnancy and I'm not worried as long as you wash your hands well. Hope that put your mind at ease xx

You won’t get bird flu.

Hello, I have pet chickens and am pregnant. Yes you’re being silly.

The only people (literally an amount I can count on one hand) that have caught it have been those who work on giant poultry farms when they’ve had very large outbreaks in cramped indoor conditions. They’ve probably been dealing with thousands of birds that have died off it. And nobody who’s caught it has got very sick. It isn’t a disease that on the whole has learnt to jump to humans.