Bird Flu and Chickens as Pets?!

Bird Flu and Chickens as Pets?

We have a friend in the US here who has chickens as pets...they run around his house, and he wants me to bring my kids over to play with them. No, this is not a joke, he's mad at me because I'm paranoid about bird flu!! I know not every bird here has it, but my kids have health issues, and I don't want to worry about it, at any rate. Whatcha guys think??

Previous information is not correct. We have had low pathogenic H5N1 avian flu virus in the United States and that can mutate into high pathogenic. I’ll put the technical stuff at the end of this.

What your friend is doing is very, very dangerous.

Unfortunately birds get viruses and even more unfortunately people can become infected with those viruses. We become infected from birds when we have close contact with their respiratory secretions or feces.

If the birds are running around your friend’s home, there are respiratory secretions and feces and germs – even if you can’t see them and even if he thinks his home is clean and that his birds are healthy.

Our usual winter flu begins in Southeast Asia because people in that part of the world have a tendency to live more closely with their birds. Many households have birds in the back yards and some have their birds living in their homes. Children play with the birds and walk in the backyards barefoot.

When the birds get sick, the kids and the rest of the family get sick too.

When it’s a mild virus, we get one of the usual winter flues that we are used to having each year, and eventually it spreads from Asia to the U.S. But when it’s a deadly super flu like H5N1 it is very dangerous.

World wide the H5N1 avian flu virus has a fatality rate over 60%. In Indonesia the fatality rate is 85%.

The number of patients who have died so far is low because there isn’t a pandemic yet.

But scientists are watching the virus. It has been transmitted from person to person in some of the people who have been infected, and they are saying it is continuing to mutate and acquiring the changes necessary to pass easily from person to person. When that happens there will be a pandemic.

It is possible – and looking more likely as time goes on – that it will become pandemic while retaining the high fatality rate.

Ducks and geese can have the H5N1 virus and not show any symptoms. So they can be spreading the virus as they fly. Some chickens in Europe and the middle east have become infected by migratory birds who were infected.

Your friend’s birds are probably not infected with the H5N1 virus, but you don’t know that for sure and they could have other viruses as well. You’re not paranoid – you’re just wanting to take good care of your kids, and your friend is wrong.
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We will not have vaccine for the virus until 6 to 9 months into a pandemic. Vaccine is produced specifically for each individual virus. We can’t begin to produce a vaccine until the pandemic virus emerges. At first there will be small amounts and it will be given to healthcare workers and first responders.

We have only a very small stockpile of antiviral medication. Most people will need to be cared for at home because we will not have enough beds in hospitals.

Officials are saying that they will close schools for up to 3 months. We have been told that we should have nonperishable food, water, baby food, pet food, medicine so that we can stay in our homes to reduce the number of infections.

We certainly have had high pathogenic bird flu in the United States. This is from the U.S. Dept of Agriculture website…
HPAI H5N1 has not been detected in the United States. However, other strains of HPAI have been detected and eradicated three times in the United States: in 1924, 1983 and 2004. No significant human illness resulted from these outbreaks.

The 1924 HPAI H7 outbreak was contained and eradicated in East Coast live bird markets.

The 1983-84 HPAI H5N2 outbreak resulted in humanely euthanizing approximately 17 million chickens, turkeys and guinea fowl in Pennsylvania and Virginia to contain and eradicate the disease.

In 2004, USDA confirmed an HPAI H5N2 outbreak in chickens in Texas. The disease was quickly eradicated thanks to close coordination and cooperation between USDA and State, local, and industry leaders.

LPAI H5N1 ("North American" H5N1)

LPAI, or "low path" AI, commonly occurs in wild birds. In most cases, it causes minor sickness or no noticeable signs of disease. It is rarely fatal in birds. LPAI strains are not a human health concern. This includes LPAI H5N1.

Evidence of LPAI H5N1 has been found in wild birds in the United States in recent years and is not closely related to the more severe HPAI H5N1 circulating overseas. Examples of historical reports of LPAI H5N1 received by USDA include:
1975 - LPAI H5N1 was detected in a wild mallard duck and a wild blue goose in Wisconsin as part of routine sampling, not as a result of noticeable illness in the birds

1981 and 1985 - the University of Minnesota conducted a sampling procedure in which sentinel ducks were monitored in cages placed in the wild for a short period of time and LPAI H5N1 was detected in those ducks in both years.
1983 - LPAI H5N1 was detected in ring-billed gulls in Pennsylvania.

1986 - LPAI H5N1 was detected in a wild mallard duck in Ohio as part of routine sampling, not as a result of noticeable illness in the birds.

2002 - LPAI H5N1 antibodies were detected in turkeys in Michigan but the virus could not be isolated; therefore this detection could not be confirmed.

2005 - LPAI H5N1 was detected in ducks in Manitoba, Canada.

2006 - LPAI H5N1 was confirmed in two Michigan mute swans, Maryland resident wild mallard ducks, and Pennsylvania wild mallard ducks sampled as part of USDA's expanded avian influenza surveillance.

In the past, there was no requirement for reporting or tracking LPAI H5 or H7 detections in wild birds so states and universities tested wild bird samples independently of USDA. Because of this, the above list of previous detections might not be all inclusive of past LPAI H5N1 detections. However, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) recently changed its requirement of reporting detections of avian influenza. Effective in 2006, all confirmed LPAI H5 and H7 AI subtypes must be reported to the OIE because of their potential to mutate into highly pathogenic strains. Therefore, USDA now tracks these detections in wild birds, backyard flocks, commercial flocks and live bird markets.

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome?...