Reuters: Bird flu found in pigs in Indonesia's Bali (in July)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=globalNews&storyid=2006-10-09T095251Z_01_JAK269156_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-INDONESIA.xml

Bird flu found in pigs in Indonesia's Bali

Mon Oct 9, 2006 5:53 AM ET

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The H5N1 bird flu virus has infected pigs on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, a senior agriculture ministry official said on Monday.

"There were two pigs that were infected by bird flu in Bali. These were old cases that happened last July," Musni Suatmodjo, agriculture ministry director of animal health, told Reuters.

...

Pigs are a concern because they are susceptible to many of the viruses that infect humans. Swines can act as mixing vessels in which genetic material from avian flu viruses can mix with human influenza viruses, potentially producing new and deadly strains for which humans have no immunity.

...

[bif]

1. Remind me not to buy Balinese pork

[katinmn]

2. "Swines can act as mixing vessels"

ok, now there is some creative science writing out of far left field.

[depakid]

3. Apparently you don't know much about virology

or biology- because this is common knowledge in the field.

Pigs have receptors in their respiratory tract that make them susceptible to infection with human and avian influenza viruses. If a pig is simultaneously infected with both a human and an avian influenza virus, it can serve as a “mixing vessel”, facilitating the exchange of genetic material between the two viruses in a process known as “reassortment”.

The resulting new virus, which will not be recognized by the human immune system, will have pandemic potential if it retains sufficient human genes to allow efficient human-to-human transmission, and if it causes severe disease in humans.

http://www.who.int/csr/don/2004_08_20/en/index.html

See also: http://www.pighealth.com/influenza.htm

[katinmn]

4. And the chances of that happening are what?

Haven't you realized that the bird flu pandemic is a big hoax to sell pharmaceuticals and rob treasuries for dubious research projects? Billions of dollars have been spent by rich and poor countries fighting a longshot "pandemic" while people are dying daily from known, easily preventable diseases.

There are many strains of avian flu. Always has been and always will be.

Unfortunatly, WHO has been helping to legitimize the bird flu scare through these "what if" scenarios.

I am not a virologist or a biologist but I know some things.

[depakid]

5. Maybe you do

"know some things."

Personally, I prefer the hard science that the international community has long agreed on.

The wise course of action is to take is to adopt the "precautionary principle," which is what Europe, Canada and other responsible countries do.

America, on the other hand- has become well known for taking STUPID chances, neither preparing ahead with respect to foreseeable contingencies- or adopting intelligent and economic preventative and primary care that would increase thier major health indicators and outcomes, while at the same time saving them many billions of dollars annually.

There's a reason why the British have had their pandemic contigency plan formulated for 2 years now- while the USA basically still has none.

[katinmn]

6. I believe in hard science, too.

In fact, I make my living reading and reporting on scientific studies. I look at what the government has done with marketing the avian flu scare very critically.

The federal government has thrown billions at their lobbying pals for dubious vaccine development, much of it based on archaic methods, global studies of migratory birds, and reports aimed at scaring people into a frenzy so they won't make Congress stop funding their already bloated pharma phriends.

[robcon]

7. The precautionary principle has no relevance to this hoax.

The avian flu risk sold newspapers, got TV ratings, and attracted visits to blogs, but it was always a hoax, as I wrote from the beginning. It was an attempt at scaring people - and somewhat successful at doing that - but it wan anti-science.