That’s really the question: How do you catch bird flu?
I ask because our dog decided to bring us a gift this evening. He proudly dropped a dead bird on the living room carpet. The birdie body was already decomposing and filled with maggots, so it is quite clear that Charlie the dog did not kill the bird himself. This begs the question “How did the bird die?”
We have thoroughly cleaned the area where the birdie body was deposited and we have, or corse, removed the deceased from the living room. Are we or our not-as-helpful-as-he-hoped dog at risk for contracting bird flu or some other dreaded disease?
Avian flu has not yet been recorded in wild birds or domestic fowl in the Western Hemisphere, so you have no cause for concern.
In any case, it’s pretty hard for a human to catch it from birds. I am not aware of any case of a human catching it from a wild bird - it’s always been transmitted via domestic poultry. In general, you virtually much have to be breathing in infected chicken shit all day or be rubbing dead ducks all over your body to have much chance of catching it.
I should clarify a little: the H5N1 strain of influenza, the one that has been causing all the concern in Asia and Europe, has not been found in the US yet. Other strains of avian flu have occurred.
More on avian flu:
http://www.osha.gov/dsg/guidance/avian-flu.html
Suck my Cock.
Sorry. That was a “softball”.
According to the information the health authorities sent home from school with our kids (H5N1 has turned up in neighboring countries, though not here yet), every single case of H5N1 avian flu known to have occured in humans was contracted from domestic birds, particularly chickens. No one has yet been shown to have gotten it from a wild bird.
All the same, the information packet recommended caution: stay away from large areas of bird poo, don’t feed wild birds out of your hand (it’s okay to throw food to them), wash your hands after filling a bird feeder, things like that. The reason is that wild birds carry other diseases that do sometimes spread to people.
Personally, I think this is good advice just on general principles.
I look forward to the day one or more london pigeons test postitive for H5N1. The authorities will finally have to do something about the guano encrustations all over the city, and cull the filthy scabrous flying rats. There will be much rejoicing, I can tell you that.
A cat in Germany has gotten bird flu from killing and eating a bird. Dogs can get infected in the same way. It’s not known whether humans could get bird flu from an infected dog or cat.
When bird flu does get to North America, the recommended way of keeping your pets safe seems to be to keep your cats indoors and your dogs indoors or on a leash. Be careful handling their poo, too (wash your hands thoroughly afterward, that sort of thing), though you should of course be doing that already.
I wouldn’t think wild birds would eat out of someone’s hand.
Depends on your definition of ‘wild’. Squirrels and birds in London parks will eat out of your hand. Seagulls in many seaside towns have no compunction about swooping down and grabbing food from your fingers, whether you intended to share it or not.