Bird flu caused by man's inhumane treatment of animals
Congratulations to Mike Adams, whose piece about the bird flu appears on Google's home page today.
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When it comes to the bird flu virus, many people are asking, "Where did the virus come from?" The answer, as always, is unpopular with the popular press and the corporations that dominate the information you're allowed to see in this country. The bird flu virus, you see, wasn't created merely by chance, and it didn't just magically appear in migratory birds. In truth, the virus is the natural result of the mistreatment of animals as a food source. When you take tens of millions of chickens and pigs and coop them up in little tiny cages, and you don't give them sunlight, you don't give them a balanced healthy diet, and you don't let them run around in the wild or have fresh air, you create the perfect conditions for the generation and transmission of infectious disease.
This is what's happening not only in the United States and Europe, but also in Southeast Asia, where chickens, pigs and cattle are grown in horrifying conditions and subjected to treatments that are absolutely inhumane and tantamount to torture. In contrast, if you look at wild chickens running around Hawaii, and you don't see this. You don't see this dangerous H5N1 bird flu influenza in wild Hawaiian chickens because they are eating a varied diet made up of wild foods. Those chickens are getting fresh air, and they don't live two inches from each other, where diseases can be so easily transmitted.
I don't see the connection with any bird flu virus, but I agree that chickens (but also other animals) are treated in an atrocious way in many parts of the world. Yes, also in Mexico.
Iggy, I always had the same olfactory experience when driving through Belgium on the way to Germany. I didn't associate it with a barnyard tho - something much more domestic!!. I don't know if it's true, but we were told that sewage was used as a fertiliser. Has anyone driven through Belgium lately?
I disagree that bird flu originated from mistreatment of animals.
If I remember right, it originated from farms in China, which mix up pigs, poultry and ducks, in the "backyard" sort of way, NOT in factory farming conditions.
In factory farming conditions (which many consider mistreatment), species are not mixed together. In fact, even varieties of the same species (broilers and layer and breeders) are not mixed together. Thus, new varieties of viruses like bird flu could not originate in factory farms.
Bird flu came from "backyard" farming conditions where species are mixed together. And I don't think people believe that "backyard" farming is mistreatment. There's no way one can raise various species together in the millions, or even in the hundreds. Backyard farms raise several species but rarely reaching the tens.
So whatever our beliefs on what is mistreatment or not, bird flu varieties came from backyard farming, not from factory farming.
As for the chickens in Hawaii, I think they're more of enjoying the virtual isolation from sources of disease, being separated from the rest of the world by a very large body of water. Commercially grown chickens in Hawaii (if any) would be similarly free of the bird flu for the same reason.
Skep, I don't mean this to be a slur, but the last time I was in the Netherlands [80s], I was struck by the pervasive barnyard smell that the entire country seemingly had.
No offense taken, Iggy. I know every country has its own smell. The first time I visited America, I found that it smelled of Bourbon. And the scent was still on my clothes when I got back home again. (OK, OK, so I drank some of the stuff. I still do).
I'm a city slicker myself, but I know what the countryside smells like in Holland. The farmers still prefer natural fertilizer (which they get free from their livestock) over the chemical stuff. There's a specific season when farmers take the stinky stuff out to their plots of land. But I'm no expert on agricultural matters.
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The local women would squat behind a weed that wouldn't cover your shin.
Sorry to hear about your problem, Vilhjalmur, but you went about it wrong. Maybe Belgian men cut down all the bushes because they enjoy seeing women pee. But just as Holland has its windmills, Belgium has its caf�'s. You can stand anywhere in Belgium and throw a horseshoe over your shoulder. I can guarantee that it will go through the window of a caf�. Once you have located the establishment, you go in and ask to use the "cour", which is a plain ol' toilet. This request will certainly be granted; the Belgians are very accomodating. Afterwards, they will probably appreciate it if you would consume a beer on the premises, and also pay for the broken window. Belgian beer is quite good, by the way.
Gerry, I think you're right about the barnyard farming in China. But don't you find it strange (as I do) that all these pandemics start somewhere in the far East? Never in Oshkosh or in Short Pump. The 1918 "Spanish" flu started in Canton. If I suspect some government plurk of taking over the direction, once a credible script materializes somewhere in Farawaystan, would you call me paranoid?
But don't you find it strange (as I do) that all these pandemics start somewhere in the far East? Never in Oshkosh or in Short Pump. The 1918 "Spanish" flu started in Canton.
Canton, Ohio? Nawww...Ground Zero for the 1918 flu, or so I've read several places, was... was... well, no one knows, really.
In the spring of 1918 large numbers of soldiers in the trenches in France became ill. The soldiers complained of a sore throat, headaches and a loss of appetite. Although it appeared to be highly infectious, recovery was rapid and doctors gave it the name of 'three-day fever'. At first doctors were unable to identify the illness but eventually they decided it was a new strain of influenza. The soldiers gave it the name Spanish Flu but there is no evidence that it really did originate from that country. In fact, in Spain they called it French Flu. Others claimed that the disease started in the Middle Eastern battlefields, whereas others blamed it on China and India. A recent study argued that the disease was brought to the Western Front by a group of USA soldiers from Kansas.
For the next few months soldiers continued to be infected with the virus but there were very few fatalities. However, in the summer of 1918, symptoms became much more severe. About a fifth of the victims developed bronchial pneumonia or septicemic blood poisoning. A large percentage of these men died. Others developed heliotrope cyanosis. Doctors were able to identify this by the bluish condition of the sufferer. Over 95% of those with heliotrope cyanosis died within a few days. This second-wave of the epidemic spread quickly. In one sector of the Western Front over 70,000 American troops were hospitalised and nearly one third of these men died failed to recover.
By the end of the summer the virus had reached the German Army. The virus created serious problems for the German military leadership as they found it impossible to replace their sick and dying soldiers. The infection had already reached Germany and over 400,000 civilians died of the disease in 1918.
The first cases of the influenza epidemic in Britain appeared in Glasgow in May, 1918. It soon spread to other towns and cities and during the next few months the virus killed 228,000 people in Britain. This was the highest mortality rate for any epidemic since the outbreak of cholera in 1849. [...]
The USA was also very badly affected by the virus. By September a particularly virulent strain began to sweep through the country. By early December about 450,000 Americans had died of the disease.
The country that suffered most was India. The first cases appeared in Bombay in June 1918. The following month deaths were being reported in Karachi and Madras. With large numbers of India's doctors serving with the British Army the country was unable to cope with the epidemic. Some historians claim that between June 1918 and July 1919 over 16,000,000 people in India died of the virus.
It has been estimated that throughout the world over 70 million people died of the influenza pandemic. In India alone, more people died of influenza than were killed all over the world during the entire First World War.
Gerry, I think you're right about the barnyard farming in China. But don't you find it strange (as I do) that all these pandemics start somewhere in the far East?
Ruby, I believe he was speaking of Canton, China, where Cantonese style Chinese food originates from.
I agree with Skep about that. Bird Flu, Sars, and others have all originated in the Far East. What's going on over there??? Maybe it's due to poor sanitation practices. Look how many people in France died of the plague before sanitary sewers were invented. Peoples in many different regions of the world still live in squallor. And many rivers that people use for the drinking water are also used for carrying away raw sewage. Add to that, the subtropical humid monsoon climate, and you've got a perfect breeding ground for disease.
Gerry, I read somewhere about sustainable farming, that it is better for all the barnyard animals to be raised in the same pastures (multispecies grazing), where the soil is teeming with the natural beneficial soil microorganisms that they are ingesting when eating off the ground. Specifically, it said that chickens and cows should be on pasture together. The chickens will feed off of the dung patties from the cattle, which is good for them and for parasite control. They both leave behind things that are beneficial to the other and the ecology of the pasture.
In the wild, nature does not separte the animals. They all follow each other around from one feeding ground to another. So I would think if anything, it is mans separation of the beasts, and the destruction of the soil organisms, insects, and plant defenses, by agricultural chemicals that are causing the animals to get sick. I think if anyting, overgrazing of pastures that have been chemically treated are more trouble, due to the destruction of the natural ecology of the pasture.
Soil organisms are natures antibiotics. The soil organism probiotics that I use, were discovered by a guy, Peter Smith I believe, who studied the arabic people who got dysentary-like illnesses. They would follow the camels around, and eat the warm fresh camel dung, and would quickly get well due to the organisms found in it. So he studied the dung and isolated the organisms for cultivation in a laboratory.
Here is an excerpt on sustainable farming practices:
Another way that multispecies grazing can improve pasture and animal production is through the consumption of poisonous plants by a species that is not harmed by the toxins. For example, leafy spurge and larkspur-serious problems in the western states-are harmful to cattle, but not to sheep. Therefore, using sheep to eliminate those plants will result in more useable and safe pasture for cattle. Conversely, some plants are problematic for sheep, but easily tolerated by cattle
Dung-burying beetles help disperse dung pats, reducing the environment for parasites. Free-ranging chickens also help reduce parasites by picking apart fresh dung pats, which dries the pats out faster and destroys a harbor for parasites. Drought controls parasites. Livestock in arid areas have fewer problems with internal parasites, but they are susceptible when moved to areas with heavy parasite loads.
Parasites are a major concern with sheep and goats, under any system. Worm eggs are deposited on the pasture in the manure; the eggs hatch and larvae are consumed by grazing animals. If left untreated, concentrations of parasites will increase with time as this cycle is repeated. Higher concentrations of animals on a pasture may tend to magnify the infestation. Parasites are species-specific; that is, cattle parasites affect cattle, and not sheep, while sheep parasites affect sheep but not cattle. The cattle act as "vacuum cleaners", ingesting the sheep worm larvae, and preventing them from affecting the sheep. This is most helpful when sheep and cattle follow each other in a grazing system. However, goats and sheep do share parasites, and therefore grazing them together does not improve parasite control.
Because parasite eggs are deposited in the manure, and larvae only travel a short distance up grass blades, animals grazing taller forages (well above ground level) will not consume worm eggs or larvae. Therefore, goats that are given ample browse will be much less likely to become infested with parasites. If goats are forced to graze at ground level, however, the goats may acquire a serious parasite load.
Gerry, I think you're right about the barnyard farming in China. But don't you find it strange (as I do) that all these pandemics start somewhere in the far East?
I don't know if pandemics really do start in the Far East. Like, wasn't AIDS from Africa? smallpox from Egypt?
A canine pandemic, parvovirus, which swept through the dogs of the world in the late '70s, is believed to have been first reported in Australia. It was suspected to have mutated from a feline parvo vaccine.
As for bird flu, I read that it developed from existing influenza strains because of the mixing up of different host species (farm animals). Influenza viruses only affect particular species -- chickens, pigs, human -- and it is extremely rare that an influenza strain affecting one species develops to affect another species.
However, as I saw it explained, if host species are living closely, as in backyard farms, then it would be easier for the virus of one species to interact with other species (or their viruses) and adapt or develop into a different/new strain. Such "new" strain can then either affect a species that it never affected before, or be more deadly to the species it previously affected.
If this explanation is correct, then we have no reason to blame factory farming, which only keeps one species, or even only one variety or breed of species, in a farm. In fact, we may have every reason to blame backyard/barnyard farming for the development of this recent strain of bird flu.
For sure, there are advantages and disadvantages of both factory farming and barnyard farming and all the variations in between. But I find it irresponsible for someone to blame one type of farming for an outbreak just because he doesn't believe in it. Particularly if the evidence shows the opposite.
Gerry, I read somewhere about sustainable farming, that it is better for all the barnyard animals to be raised in the same pastures (multispecies grazing), where the soil is teeming with the natural beneficial soil microorganisms that they are ingesting when eating off the ground.
That would be ideal, and I would like to live in such a world. But that would only work if all of us stayed in farms and fed ourselves directly from our produce. Otherwise, the world will starve.
One reason factory farming/mass production methods had to be developed was to be able to meet the demand for food because people stopped producing their own. I could easily imagine that if all factory farms were shut down to be replaced with barnyard farming, a great famine will result, at least for those who would not start their own farm.
Now if everyone would just go back to the land and live off it... :wink:
Ruby, I believe he was speaking of Canton, China, where Cantonese style Chinese food originates from.
Tee hee hee...I knew that (honest!)
I think the scientists are counting on--but not discounting--the fact that, as Gerry said, it's extremely rare for a virus that affects one species to mutate to another species.
Rare, but not impossible, as anyone who has been on the receiving end of rabies shots will tell you.
The aerosol form of bird flu as a weapon would work only if the entire terrorist world was suicidal which, of course, they're not. There may be martyrs among the terrorists, but they're a small minority. Terrorist leaders know that viruses are not controllable, and that if they unleased the virus, they, too, would face death. They are under the same constraints with respect to a virus as any other immunologist or epidemiologist studying possible vaccines. That is, you can't develop a vaccine unless and until the virus has actually mutated and is identified, at which time the terrorist virus releasers, too, may be dead.
It doesn't even affect humans, so where's the terror?
I'm sure all the birds are trembling in fear, though, if they knew how to read.
Terrorists have lots of choices for biological warfare -- anthrax, AIDS, SARS, smallpox (if they could get a hold of the virus), and a host of other microbes that ALREADY affect humans. Why would they bother to use a microbe that does not affect us? one that they still have to genetically engineer? (as if anyone could do that very easily )
Unless they plan to terrorize us by threatening our food supply, I think that "news item" is just another panic button.
Bird flu caused by man's inhumane treatment of animals
:wink: 
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