http://au.news.yahoo.com/050527/19/ui9l.html

China was battling two separate disease outbreaks after more than 1,000 migratory birds died from bird flu and thousands of cattle were culled following a foot-and-mouth outbreak.

The number of birds found dead from the H5N1 strain of avian flu is far higher than previously acknowledged.

"Up to May 26 a total of over 1,000 birds have been found dead, including bar-headed geese, great black-headed gulls and cormorants," Jia Youling, director of the Ministry of Agriculture's veterinary bureau, said Friday at a press conference.

China had previously said only 178 birds died from an outbreak of bird flu at a nature reserve in the western province of Qinghai, sparking a massive vaccination campaign.

I was watching something on the news the other day, saying that rural farmers are not reporting their sick birds because they are afraid of losing their farming livelihoods :( It's basically a no-win situation no matter how you look at it :(

thats resally sad.i dont know what else tosay.

Could this all be stopped if they stopped raising chickens for food, or at least cleaned up the conditions?

Another thought - could the same thing happen in the first world?

hoof & mouth -- do you remember the UK outbreak in ~2000/2001? I had my boots washed at the airport b/c of it :D

Avian Flu -- I suspect it'll make its way to australia one of these days, despite quarantine efforts. Especially if it mutates to human-to-human transmission.

Scary.....:eek: