We raise chickens and goats in our back yard for meat and milk. We also test our stock. We don't buy any animals from the livestock barns so that we always know the source of our animal.

Still we worry about the unscupulous who will sell anything.

It's highly unlikely that human-adapted avian flu will come to America through unregulated poultry markets in this country. Most likely, the virus will mutate elsewhere, and come to America inside human carriers.

There have been millions of words written about a flu epidemic that did not materialize within the seasonal expectations that prompted the concern. Y2K reasoning is not dead. Emotional rethoric is threatening a way of life for those who are trying to retain contact with the soil and the source of their food. Backyard flocks are targeted as threats when the real threat comes from the industrial chicken facilities that intensify the likelihood of disease by packing more in more chickens into larger facilities.

One more boogieman hiding out in the American anxiety closet.
Just when we came to peace with "mad cow disease".
Six and a half billion people on the planet...how many have contracted this "pandemic"?
Of those how many of those cases have been fatal???
Check out the numbers.
More people have died from spontaneous human combustion.
I'm as cynical as they come, but this avian flu pandemic is strictly for the birds.

I have to say, this blog is very well written - it is concise and informative. Kudos to the writer, Ms. Washington!

Just an after thought if I may...
You want to save lives by the tens of thousands, everyday?
There's a real pandemic going around. It has been for some time now.
Nothing fancy. It's called hunger.
It kills tens and hundreds of thousands of people, especially children each and every day on this planet.
And get this, the cure is very low tech.
All you have to do is feed them.
No takers?
Yeah, this avian flu thing with death tolls in the double digits is much more worthy of our time and focus.
My Gawd, what a culture!!

Birds fly. The Avian flu is a virus found in wild birds. These birds will fly to the USA and I will assert that some may be infected with the Avian flu virus. Irregardless of location, if a susceptable organism has interation with one of these potentially infected birds, they may contract this virus. The host doesn't have to be transported by any "human means" to get here. It will come by its own means, under its own power, with a self determined course. Chicken farm, duck pond, meat market, someones back yard are all potential "drop zones". One would be wise to respect this virus, mutated or not. The best set of blinders won't necessarily prevent the common cold and neither will denial. Best regards.

Pandemic flu...nah! Global warming....boogey man talk. Worldwide virus that causes fatal immunodeficiency spread by sex...ridiculous. Hurricane that wipes out the Gulf Coast..."oooh...the sky is falling!"
My guess is...nope, we won't be prepared...whatever the next disaster. All the hype about preparing for pandemic avian flu is political and of little real benefit(although I got some grant dollars for studying it. Hey..thanks!) My analysis: it does have a reasonable chance of actually happening and nope...we don't have 200 extra ventilators in our hospital; Good news: yes...our health department will be able to tally deaths and tell us how many people died about 2-5 years later.
We are incapable of being proactive...just reactive.
Six billion people crammed into the world...we are like sheep awaiting the slaughter. But hey...with that many people we can afford to lose a couple of hundred million. Good luck...hope you're not one of them. Keep on letting your politicians play their shell games, folks (let's see, we'll tell them they're getting a tax break while stealing them blind (increased spending, natl debt, trade imbalance, offshoring, raping the environment for short term gain, inflation,etc.) And when the "big one" hits, we'll tell them what a great job we're doing because it could have been worse if we weren't so well prepared. Look at Ray Nagin in New Orleans..."boo hoo..it's raining..call me when it's safe to come out". And you re-elected the guy!! Hee hee...what fun. signed: infectious disease doc

Isn't it ironic....Millions of people starving the world and the chicken little panic has destroyed billions of chickens, ducks, turkeys etc. Even the war lords in starving countries wouldn't confiscate these chickens. Doesn't cooking these birds kill the so called bird flu.?? Back in the 60's a process was discovered to use the unwanted fish (20%) caught in commercial fishing nets, pulverize the fish into a powder, blend it with flour, and make a bread high in protein that could end world hunger. However regulators said each fish had to be cleaned before the bread process. Became complicated and never happened. More red tape

Approximately 24,000 per day die from hunger.
75% are kids 5 years and under.
Avian flu ain't got nothin' on this pandemic.
Why hasn't a cure been forthcoming for hunger, while the Bird Flu has everybody scrambling because maybe a dozen people in all have been taken by it?
Well, for one, the western world may believe it's suseptable to a virus, but no one here thinks for a moment that they will ever have to succumb to hunger.
But guess again.
Over 2 million people in America alone, go to bed hungry every day and have no idea where tomorrow's meal is coming from.
What kind of math does it take to make people see that there are curable things killing thousands of people right now, that are much more devastating than a possible, maybe virus of tomorrow?
If the purpose of this rash of global awareness is to save lives, we needn't wait for some theoretic avian flu.
Lives that could already be saved by other managable threats are being snuffed out every day.
And ignored in the press.

When it comes to this avian epidemic,I have been informed that yes proper cooking kills most of all viruses including this avian flu.So all we have to do is use bleach mixture,half and half. Cook poultry above normal range aprrox 350degrees then you can be reassured about consuming your poultry.

This isn't the appropriate thread for addressing hunger, although it is a very honorable cause. (End Hunger!)

Fixes for Hunger:

1) Move away from the dusty desert to where the food is.

2) Plant a garden (not in a dusty desert).

3) In the USA: donate to a food bank (especially the large supermarket chains (END DISCARDS).

4) In the USA: get incarcerated!

5) Almost anywhere: Cook a discarded Avian Flu Bird and eat it!

Don't be fools. It cost's little for each of us to prepare, it cost's everything not to.

What is it they say about history? Fools are condemned to repeat it?

Pandemics are a cyclical fact. Not hogwash, not poppycock!

How arogant to predict that the next Pandemic (really isn't) or wont.

I won't critisize my goverment for telling me to prepare (early), and reporting the facts as they come available, but I'll critisize them when they STILL haven't prepared and the Pandemic reaches our soil.

A global pandemic WILL HAPPEN. It's not if, it's when. And if it's not H5N1, it will be another one lurking out there. These pandemics happen 2 or 3 per century. We're due, and H5N1 poses a significant risk as being "the one". Sorry, but it's true.

On June 23rd, 2006 the World Health Organization reported that the family killed in Sumatra, died from (CLOSE HUMAN TO HUMAN) contact. They ALL DIED!

That's what we call mutation. This virus has already been determined to be rapidly mutating (see CDC.gov or WHO.org).

Before June 2006, our risk was working in (or eating infected poultry). After June 2006, it's a matter of time until an infected poultry worker kisses a realative goodbye, who boards a plane to London, then off to Dallas, then to Austin before a single sympton occurs, only to become fatally ill the following day. Meantimee, there are now hundreds of people flooding hospitals that had the poor misfortune of beinig on that flight, or close to someone who was close to someone, and on, and on.

Stock up, buy some infection prevention supplies, and be ready to hang out at home for a few weeks.

Hello, I look at it as a fad, so I bought some toys for the fad. I bought 2 nice masks for the face for about $30 each, big rubber boots, a lot of paper-like hair nets, goggles over entire eye area, N95 respirators, and a box of rubbery thin gloves. I'm still planning on purchasing a month's supply of canned food.

Yep!
If nothing else, look at it as a way to boost the economy through consumerism.

I heard recently that if all the international DDT restrictions were removed then a lot a people wouldn't be hungry and we'd have a few deaths from cancer!

nicely written, Ms. Washington!