AVIAN FLU

[Guest]

Just reported on ITN news swans tested in britain - negative.

[Guest]

Just reported on ITN news swans tested in britain - negative.

 

 

Good news. Nearly fell out of my chair 7am this morning BBC Breakfast spoke about 12 swans at a (London?) wildlife reserve found dead and being tested? Really annoyed at the way it was presented, couldn't tell if they were at the 'pond' for scenic / moody background or because the dead swans had been found there???

[westy]

Good news about the swans.

[Guest]

Thanks johnny i will have look at that im getting the impression though that the canadian and us vets findings arent making lot of impact here and in europe not sure why i would have thought we should have been using their findings

 

Difficult to get people to listen to things they just don't want to hear, Rose. They latched onto 'pigeons are resistant to avian flu' because that's exactly WHAT THEY WANTED TO HEAR, when in fact they were being told 'pigeons are resistant to Low pathogenic avian flu'.

 

But Peter Bryant can't escape criticism: he and therefore the RPRA and the BHW are on the vets email address too; he and I got it around 30th November 2005, I published it here as requested by Gordon Chalmers and his colleagues;  Peter Bryant and the RPRA sat on it ... then sat back again when the FCI letter was published in BHW on 10th Feb., repeating that 'pigeons are resistant to avian flu', further confusing the ordinary fancier.

 

No wonder people don't know who or what to believe.

 

[Guest]

i think the rpra and bhw have done a great job and shopuldnt be knocked

[Guest]

so whe the rpra apoint someone for the job shpuld one of the criterias of the job be that they have knowledge about pigeons?

[slatey]

Acording to article in todays daily star we cant let the pigeons out. My mate phoned to see if it was true, anyone seen this?

tomo

[Guest]

Peter Bryant has put out a message saying that it is not true and he has asked the paper to retract this.

[Guest]

Dear All

 

The headline in the Daily Star today is an exclusive and states that all racing pigeons have to be locked up and there is no racing which is bad news for Jack Duckworth apparently.

 

 

 

The story is RUBBISH!  

 

 

 

I have written to the Daily Star requesting a correction

 

regards

 

 

 

Peter Bryant

 

General Manager

 

The Royal Pigeon Racing Association

 

The Reddings

 

near Cheltenham, Glos GL51 6RN

 

tel 01452 713529 fax 857119

[jimmy white]

IT JUST GOES TO SHOW THAT THE PRESS CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOU, STILL ON THE GOOD SIDE IF THEY RETRACT THIS IT WOULD ACTUALLY,DO US A FAVOUR,[ IVE E MAILED THEM AS WELL]

[Guest]

Some information from the WHO website on how the H5N1 viruses have changed and are still changing:

 

Avian influenza: significance of mutations in the H5N1 virus

 

20 February 2006

 

Several recent media reports have included speculations about the significance of mutations in H5N1 avian influenza viruses. Some reports have suggested that the likelihood of another pandemic may have increased as a result of changes in the virus.

 

Since 1997, when the first human infections with the H5N1 avian influenza virus were documented, the virus has undergone a number of changes.

 

These changes have affected patterns of virus transmission and spread among domestic and wild birds. They have not, however, had any discernible impact on the disease in humans, including its modes of transmission. Human infections remain a rare event. The virus does not spread easily from birds to humans or readily from person to person.

 

Influenza viruses are inherently unstable. As these viruses lack a genetic proof-reading mechanism, small errors that occur when the virus copies itself go undetected and uncorrected. Specific mutations and evolution in influenza viruses cannot be predicted, making it difficult if not impossible to know if or when a virus such as H5N1 might acquire the properties needed to spread easily and sustainably among humans. This difficulty is increased by the present lack of understanding concerning which specific mutations would lead to increased transmissibility of the virus among humans.

 

Animal viruses

 

Virtually all the known subtypes of influenza A viruses circulate in some wild birds, most notably wild waterfowl. In these birds, different viruses constantly mingle with each other and frequently exchange genetic material, resulting in a huge pool of constantly changing viruses. Mutations and reassortment events are commonly observed in the affected bird populations.

 

In animals, some recent evolutionary changes in the H5N1 virus appear to have made control efforts more difficult and further international spread of the virus in birds more likely. Such changes are fully understandable, particularly in view of the exceptionally large number of birds that have been infected with the H5N1 virus and the frequent interactions between infected free-ranging poultry and wild waterfowl.

 

Studies have shown that H5N1 viruses from the current outbreaks, when compared with viruses from 1997 and 2003, have become progressively more lethal in experimentally infected chickens and mice, and are also hardier, surviving several days longer in the environment. Other studies have shown that the virus is not yet fully adapted to poultry and is continuing to evolve.

 

Domestic ducks have acquired an ability to resist the disease caused by some strains, and are now capable of excreting large quantities of highly pathogenic virus without showing the warning signs of illness. In endemic countries, this altered role of domestic ducks is now thought to contribute to perpetuation of the transmission cycle. Research conducted in South-east Asia has recently shown that multiple distinct lineages of H5N1 virus have become established in poultry in different geographical regions, indicating the long-term endemicity of the virus in parts of Asia. That research also detected highly pathogenic H5N1 virus in apparently healthy migratory birds.

 

In birds, one important recent finding has been the remarkable similarity of viruses from recent outbreaks to those isolated from migratory birds that began dying at the Qinghai Lake nature reserve in central China in late April 2005. Evidence is mounting that this event, which resulted in the deaths of more than 6,000 wild birds, signalled an important change in the way the virus interacts with its natural reservoir host.

 

Unlike the case with mutations of human viruses (some of which have been transient), it appears that some changes have become fixed in viruses circulating in at least some species of wild birds.

 

Prior to the Qinghai Lake event, the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus was known to cause occasional sporadic deaths in migratory waterfowl, but not to kill them in large numbers or be carried by them over long distances.

 

Viruses from Qinghai Lake showed a distinctive mutation at one site experimentally associated with greater lethality in birds and mice. Viruses from the most recent outbreaks, in Nigeria, Iraq, and Turkey, as well as from earlier outbreaks in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, are virtually identical to Qinghai Lake viruses.

 

It is considered unusual for an avian influenza virus causing outbreaks in birds to remain this genetically stable over so many months. This finding raises the possibility that the virus – in its highly pathogenic form – has now adapted to at least some species of migratory waterfowl and is co-existing with these birds in evolutionary equilibrium, causing no apparent harm, and travelling with these birds along their migratory routes.

 

If further research verifies this hypothesis, re-introduction of the virus or spread to new geographical areas can be anticipated when migratory birds begin returning to their breeding areas.

 

The recent appearance of the virus in birds in a rapidly growing number of countries is of public health concern, as it expands opportunities for human exposures and infections to occur. These opportunities increase when the virus spreads from wild to domestic birds, especially when these birds are kept as backyard flocks in close proximity to humans..

 

To date, no human cases have been linked to exposure to wild birds. Close contact with infected poultry and other domestic birds remains the most important source of human infections.

 

Human viruses

 

Some mutations have been detected in human viruses isolated in 2005 and, most recently, in one virus isolated from a fatal case in the January 2006 outbreak in Turkey. Although these mutations were found at the receptor-binding site and involved the substitution of more mammalian-like amino acids, the effect of these changes on transmissibility of the virus, either from birds to humans or from one person to another, is not fully understood. Moreover, recent studies show that these mutations were transient and did not become fixed in the circulating viruses.

 

Scientists do not presently know which specific mutations are needed to make the H5N1 virus easily and sustainably transmissible among humans. For example, it is not known whether the absence of a specific receptor in humans for this purely avian virus is responsible for the present lack of efficient human-to-human transmission. For this reason, virological evidence of mutational changes must be assessed together with epidemiological information about transmission patterns actually occurring in human populations. This necessity further underscores the importance of close surveillance and thorough investigation during every outbreak involving human cases.

 

Assessments of the outbreak in Turkey, conducted by WHO investigative teams, have produced no convincing evidence that mutations have altered the epidemiology of the disease in humans, which was similar to the pattern consistently seen in affected parts of Asia. There is no evidence, at present, from any outbreak site that the virus has increased its ability to spread easily from one person to another.

 

[Guest]

i think the rpra and bhw have done a great job and shopuldnt be knocked

 

 

I think I made reasonable and justifiable crtitcism Gez. The information was available for fanciers on 30 November 05 and was only published in a limited way on 20 February 06 (on the web, not everyone has access). In between times, BHW failed to print several letters from me attempting to correct obvious misunderstandings on avian flu and pigeons, yet the FCI has a letter published in BHW on 10th which is completely wrong as it contradicts the information you posted: which had been known at the reddings months earlier. And surely something as important as that information should be published as an article rather than a letter's page item??

 

Now we'll have another view from the reddings this week, completely contradicting something published in the same magazine only two weeks earlier.

 

Not my idea of a good job.

 

[Guest]

Are we hearing rumours in the States, or has Europe been closed down entirely in respect of pigeon racing and the United Kingdom will follow suit before the week is out

 

i hope this is not true and just rumour

[Guest]

Sorry Rose I tend to disagree with you here, The Gem in the Crown of The American Racing Pigeon Union is our Executive Director (General Manager) Karen Clifton, who cam,e to us from the Insurance world, but she is backed up by an excellent Board of Directors who have their eyes to the future not the past as seems the case with the RPRA

[Guest]

I dpon't know about the RPRA Council now, but years ago it was made up of ole farts

[Guest]

i agree there, but i think this is all to late, the man at the top is doing the best he can, and its not his fault really is it? this is why pigeon racing is a dying sport. well not dying its dead in my opinion.

[Guest]

i should imagine that its fact as if the dutch are keeping them in (which they are) think the belgians would have jumped on the band wagon

[johnny11]

Just to add something about the RPRA council and introducing "younger blood".

 

Go to any meeting around the country and look at the average age, then tell the members there is a job up for grabs for secretary "can we have any proposals"...... Silence. the council maybe old but nobody else wants the job.

 

Rose not a swipe at you but would you do it?

 

Younger people are discouraged from taking active roles Especially up here it is a case of the old know best... and your still wet behind the ears.

 

The sport has brought this on themselves. If people feel they could do a better job then simply apply to council through your region.

 

John

[Guest jason]

I know this is the avian flu thread but I felt I had to reply to johnny11, I am the youngest member of my club (I'm 30) and I am president and press officer, because no one else would do it. I am hoping to do a good job and promote the sport / hobby. ;D

[frank-123]

this thread is about avian flu!!

heres a link to eu press statement  http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/195&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN

[johnny11]

Rose

 

My reply was in no attended to be derogatory in any way, it is just that I am sec of Fed, sec of Amal and delegate for combine. I am 33 and I am by way the youngest in the fed. I come across so much crap it is unbelievable and all from "older" fanciers who are still going on about how it was in the 60's. everyone realises the sport is in decline and will continue to do so until the older generation let us take more of an active role unhindered by the old ways.

 

Without my and jason generation being allowed to try and take the sport forward when these older fanciers have gone we wont have a sport to take forward. Most are concened about what is happenong now rather than what will happen.

 

Totally agree about the support point of view

John

[johnny11]

Also Rose

 

Leahurst is where I work and the centre will still be a while away yet but plans are well advanced for the centre. we have some of the leading names in animal science here, but without trying to dampen the positives in this, the pigeon knowledge is far greater on this site than we have here, so maybe it may bring in a leading name in pigeon health who knows

 

John

[Guest]

i want to stand and get on the rpra council as a member of pigeonbasics, a 22 yr old fancier :-p,    let me have a say

[zetlandlad999]

Read an interesting article in the Featherd World magazine by David Bland, tells things as they realy are.

[Guest]

Read an interesting article in the Featherd World magazine by David Bland, tells things as they realy are.

 

Doesn't tell us very much Neil.  ;D

 

How about posting up a summary of the main bits?

 

Who is David Bland?