Lately there have been several pieces in the news about the Avian Flu. Apparently this was first detected in Asia, with reported cases in China and Thailand. More recently Avian Flu has been detected in poultry stocks in both Delaware and New Jersey.
Questions:
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Despite the lovely comic vision I have of chickens with little passports tucked under their wings going through preflight security, I figure that in reality very few fowl fly commercial airlines to go to Thailand or China for vacation or to visit relatives. So how do scientist suspect that the virus got from Asia to the United States? Is it the same virus strain? Have there been reported cases in Europe?
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There have also been reports of destroying chickens, at least in Thailand, to try and stem the spread of the virus. How is the virus spread? Does the chicken farmer catch when the chicken sneezes or coughs and forgets to cover its beak? Is there some strange bestiality going on here?
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Japan has banned imports of US chicken. Is there any possibility to catch this flu from the consumption of deceased chicken parts? Or is this just the Japanese being their normal xenophopic selves?