the bat lady from Wuhan is at it again... or maybe we should call her Chicken lady:

The latest WAGD news article:

A scientific journal published by top Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers shared studies appearing to engage in gain-of-function type research, a controversial method of studying pathogens that can increase their lethality.

no, she isn't trying to make a bioweapon: She just was changing the virus and giving it to animals to see what makes it worse. 

Such mutations occur in nature, of course, but given the poor safety record of her level 3 lab, it does make one wonder.

-Bird flu naturally spreads via migrating birds, and since the Philippines is not on a usual migration path, we were bird flu free for years, until somehow they found some infected birds.

Probably in smuggled in chickens that were infected but sold to us anyway.

The animal rights folks blame the chicken farms: but you know, we monitored our chickens closely, and they were raised inside a shelter so migrating birds could not infect them.

But free range chickens and small farmers who raise chickens are the real risk: they handle the birds personally, and might not monitor or vaccinate them. And of couse they might eat a bird who they didn't know was sick.

Eating infected chickens can give you bird flu, as can close contact e.g. those destroying infected chickens are at risk, as are those who handle fighting cocks... 

for awhile Jakarta banned having chickens within city limits: some people have a couple of chickens to provide eggs, but what is more common is men who raise a few fighting cocks in their backyards, under umbrellas or on a leash. Ironically the stray dogs avoid them: they are vicious. But of course, migrating birds who seek their food could spread the disease to these birds.

there is a vaccine for the chickens, which is used for some chicken farms that produce eggs and for fighting cocks, but it is too expensive for small farmers who only have a few chickens. And the broiler chickens, like we used to raise (until the typhoon blew the buildings over) have a short life before they are sent off to Col Sander's heaven, so they are not usually vaccinated.

so if you get it in your broiler chickens, you cull them.

Captain Trips call your office, the chicken lady has a job for you

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In another new article: Another outbreak of footandMouth disease in Indonesia.

Agriculture Minister Syahrul Yasin Limpo told a parliamentary hearing on Monday 20,723 head of livestock had been infected in 16 provinces as of last week. He said these provinces had a total livestock population of around 13.8 million.

Lawmakers at the hearing urged the government to investigate where the infection originated from, slamming authorities for being "careless" in letting the virus spread across the country for the first time since around late 1980s.

The infections have spread at a time when Indonesia was already facing rising prices of meat and ahead of Eid al-Adha, one of the most important Islamic holidays, where Muslims traditionally slaughter animals and share the meat with the poor. Lawmaker Anggia Erma Rini said vaccines were urgently needed to tackle the outbreak.

Wikipedia article on Footandmouth disease. 

and until the vaccines were available, they are isolating and inspecting people traveling from these areas. 

And of course African Swine Flu is back: we have had cases on and off for the last few years, and one of our neighbors had to kill all his pigs on his small farm... one result is that we are eating a lot less pork... For the first time in ten years, we are eating beef. 

How did it get here, when pork products from infected countries are banned? Smuggling... and mislabling pork products. Probably from China. 

It's not the Chinese government per se that is the problem: it is the culture of corruption.