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Bird Flu
Contrary to recent reports in the local UAE press, there
is no scientific reason to destroy pet birds.
The policy of Abu Dhabi Municipality to
destroy pet birds is completely misguided and unnecessary.
Pet birds such as parrots and budgies are not important in
the epidemiology of H5N1 and present no special risk to
their human owners.
There are two risks for humans:
- Working
closely with poultry in farms or bird markets where the
disease exists. If
you do not work in these areas you need not be
especially worried. This situation exists in Asia and
has resulted in deaths of humans, but is no reason for
draconian measures beyond the directly affected zones.
- IF
the virus mutates and starts spreading
between humans. This
is what people are truly worried about BUT IT HAS NOT
HAPPENED YET. If this does happen, the problem becomes one of
human-to-human transmission and again, PET BIRDS PLAY
NO ROLE. It
would be a matter for human health organizations who
should be stocking up on antiviral drugs and developing
rapid response vaccine production capability as
contingency measures. The risk for humans would be other
humans, not the family’s budgie.
In short:
- Conditions
in the UAE (hot climate, relatively low numbers of
widely spaced poultry units) make it unlikely that bird
flu will become the economic problem it is in other
areas of the world.
- The
virus has not yet mutated to spread between humans. If
it does, pet birds remain irrelevant in the transmission
process.
- There
is no reason to avoid chicken meat.
You cannot catch bird flu from cooked chicken.
- There
is no scientific justification for the slaughter of pet
birds in the UAE in general, or locally in Abu Dhabi.
- These
points were made very clear during a presentation by
international virology experts held in
Abu Dhabi.
- Since
2004 we have known that cats can catch bird flu
but they have not been shown to pass it on to humans.
There is no need to get rid of your pet cat!
- Humans
are far more likely to get disease, especially
dangerous disease (e.g. TB, hepatitis, AIDS,
meningitis), from another human than from their
pet bird, cat or dog.
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