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In the meantime, the outbreak has already been larger, faster-moving, and more devastating to North America’s wildlife than any other in recorded history, and has not yet shown signs of stopping. “I would use just one word to describe it: unprecedented,” says Shayan Sharif, an avian immunologist at Ontario Veterinary College. “We have never seen anything like this before.” This strain of bird flu is unlikely to be our next pandemic. But a flu pandemic has already begun for countless other creatures—and it could alter North America’s biodiversity for good.
Deadly strains of avian flu have been ferried onto North American shores multiple times before, and rapidly petered out. That was the case in 2014, when a highly virulent version of the virus crossed the Pacific from Asia and invaded U.S. poultry farms, forcing workers to exterminate millions of chickens and turkeys. The brutal interventions worked: “They did all the right things, and nipped it in the bud,” says Nicole Nemeth, a veterinary pathologist at the University of Georgia. Hardly any wild birds were affected; egg prices bumped up briefly, then settled back roughly to baseline. “It just kind of died down,” Nemeth told me. “And everyone breathed a sigh of relief.”
..., forcing workers to exterminate millions of chickens and turkeys. The brutal interventions worked:
If leaving the remaining birds susceptible to that virus is the goal, then it worked. Think about the logic here--"Let's kill ALL our birds before the virus kills SOME of them."...???
Like we said about jhe politically motivated, unscientific CoV response-- Interventional methods to prevent spread merely means the bug will remain active for longer. It will NOT reduce morbidity or mortality over the long run. Epidemics last until a charaacteristic ratio of Susceptible to Recovered (immune) is reached..."Herd Immunity" is the state where so many individuals have immunity that the bug has nowhere to go, so to speak. We don't need to go that far.
As an epidemnic progresses, the selection pressure is for the bug to get less dangerous and the host population to get more resistant. It's not nice to fool MotherMature. She always knows best.
It IS bad, very bad, and a reminder needs to go out to everyone that it can't be belittled or downplayed, this isn't about covid, it isn't just about domestic chickens, it isn't known yet if it's partly a consequence of climate change causing viruses to flourish, and it most definitely is not about American politics.
It's about North American wild mammals and birds that are being stricken by the virus and dropping dead. The full article you posted needs to be read so everyone becomes aware of what some of the bizarre neurological symptoms are when they come across still alive but dying mammals and birds that are displaying the symptoms. When encountered the dead or dying animals need to be reported immediately to authorities and they must be treated with the same cautions that one would use when encountering what one believes to be an animal displaying the contagious symptoms of rabies. DO NOT TOUCH and do not let your own animals get near the specimens - let the professional health officials do the handling and collecting.
This following link has lists of over a dozen different species of stricken and dying or dead mammals that have been identified during the past year with having the virus, plus it has a map of locations where they were found. Unfortunately the map is only for USA - I'd have liked to see the results for Canada and other countries too, but this will have to do for now and is still evidence that it appears to be worse in the northern regions than it is yet in southern regions (so far):
This following link has lists of the types of the more than 150 species (to date) of wild birds that have been identified and confirmed during the past year:
In the 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth, can you name even one species that went extinct due to an infectious agent?...Pathogens/hosts exist in a dynamic balance just like the classic deer/wolf interaction.
Fear mongering is a preferred technique of bureaucrats and researchers to gain more funding.
How's that polar bear population, which was to have gone extinct by now, doing?
In the 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth, can you name even one species that went extinct due to an infectious agent?...Pathogens/hosts exist in a dynamic balance just like the classic deer/wolf interaction.
Fear mongering is a preferred technique of bureaucrats and researchers to gain more funding.
How's that polar bear population, which was to have gone extinct by now, doing?
It does the pathogen no good if it's 100% fatal because it also then dies out.
MD DNR has been asking us waterfowl hunters to keep an eye out for any waterfowl acting strangely and to let them know.
There have been some serious die offs the last decade or so of a couple different species of ducks. Both types of Scaup (Greater and Lesser, both are also called Bluebills) and the Long Tailed duck (formerly Old Squaw) have seen population drops unrelated to habitat, Scaups more seriously.
In the 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth, can you name even one species that went extinct due to an infectious agent?...Pathogens/hosts exist in a dynamic balance just like the classic deer/wolf interaction.
Fear mongering is a preferred technique of bureaucrats and researchers to gain more funding.
Why does a species have to go extinct to prove that avian flu is a risk to poultry production? And who claimed anything was going extinct?
Quote:
How's that polar bear population, which was to have gone extinct by now, doing?
Its doing much better since hunting has been curtailed, but it still faces serious risks going forward. Who said they would be extinct by 2023? I have never seen a reliable source say anything like that.
In the 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth, can you name even one species that went extinct due to an infectious agent?...Pathogens/hosts exist in a dynamic balance just like the classic deer/wolf interaction.
Fear mongering is a preferred technique of bureaucrats and researchers to gain more funding.
How's that polar bear population, which was to have gone extinct by now, doing?
Guido, you're forgetting the most infectious agent of all - humans. Pathogens and hosts might exist in a natural dynamic balance without the interference of humans. But humans don't exist in natural balance with anything, not anything at all. Humans are not even in balance with each other and by their actions and interferences humans can and have been the cause of more and worse pathogens being released into nature that would likely never exist if humans didn't exist.
In only recent years there are 318 species of animals that have gone extinct in a domino effect due to infectious diseases and illnesses caused by humans introducing pathogens and other interferences to those species in nature.
What's happening now is not about bureaucrats and fear mongers wanting to gain funding and you are thinking too small if that's what you believe. You need to look at the big picture and the domino effect of human impact on nature.
Guido, you're forgetting the most infectious agent of all - humans. Pathogens and hosts might exist in a natural dynamic balance without the interference of humans. But humans don't exist in natural balance with anything, not anything at all. Humans are not even in balance with each other and by their actions and interferences humans can and have been the cause of more and worse pathogens being released into nature that would likely never exist if humans didn't exist.
In only recent years there are 318 species of animals that have gone extinct in a domino effect due to infectious diseases and illnesses caused by humans introducing pathogens and other interferences to those species in nature.
What's happening now is not about bureaucrats and fear mongers wanting to gain funding and you are thinking too small if that's what you believe. You need to look at the big picture and the domino effect of human impact on nature.
.
Or you can look at it this way. If you take religion out of the equation, people and all they do are very much a part of nature, evolved to be what they are and do what they do. The human race will run its course just like every other animal species that ever existed has, and will eventually become extinct and the earth will carry on, create and rejuvenate other and new species. The cycle will continue. We just won't be around to see it.
In the 3.5 billion year history of life on Earth, can you name even one species that went extinct due to an infectious agent?...Pathogens/hosts exist in a dynamic balance just like the classic deer/wolf interaction.
Fear mongering is a preferred technique of bureaucrats and researchers to gain more funding.
How's that polar bear population, which was to have gone extinct by now, doing?
Things used to move slower so species had time to adapt. Today a pathogen circles the globe in hours on an airplane.
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