Posted on 11/27/2006 5:31:48 AM PST by Mother Abigail
South Korea to kill cats and dogs over bird flu fears
South Korea plans to kill cats and dogs to try to prevent the spread of bird flu after an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus at a chicken farm last week, officials said today.
Animal health experts, however, suggested it was "a bit of an extreme measure" when there was no definitive scientific evidence to suggest that cats or dogs could pass the virus to humans.
Quarantine officials have already killed 125,000 chickens within a 1,650-foot radius of the outbreak site in Iksan, about 155 miles south of Seoul, the Agriculture Ministry said.
Officials began slaughtering poultry yesterday, a day after they confirmed that the outbreak was caused by the H5N1 strain.
They plan to slaughter a total of 236,000 poultry, as well as an unspecified number of other animals, including pigs, and all dogs and cats in the area by Thursday, the ministry said. About six million eggs also will be destroyed, it said.
Slaughtering cats and dogs near an area infected with bird flu would be highly unusual in Asia.
Indonesia has killed pigs in the past, but most countries concentrate solely on destroying poultry. However, it would not be the first time for South Korea to kill cats and dogs due bird flu concerns. An official at the Agriculture Ministry said South Korea had slaughtered cats and dogs along with 5.3 million birds during the last known outbreak of bird flu in 2003.
Another ministry official, Kim Chang-sup, insisted killing cats and dogs to curtail the spread of bird flu was not an unusual practice.
"Other countries do it. They just don't talk about it," Kim said, adding that all mammals are potentially subject to the virus and that South Korea is just trying to take all possible precautionary measures.
He declined to comment further.
However, animal experts disputed the validity in culling cats and dogs.
"It's highly unusual, and it's not a science-based decision," said Peter Roeder, a Rome-based animal health expert with the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation or FAO, who published research about cats and bird flu earlier this year in the journal Nature. "We've got absolutely no reason to believe they're important," he said.
Dr Jeff Gilbert, an animal health expert at the FAO in Vietnam, described South Korea's plan as "a bit of an extreme measure".
He said dogs and cats have been known to occasionally become infected, but they pose little risk to humans and that in most cases, the animal has contracted the virus through eating infected poultry.
Tigers and snow leopards in a Thailand zoo died in 2003 and 2004 after being fed infected chicken carcasses. Earlier this year, a few domestic cats tested positive for the virus in Europe.
The H5N1 virus began ravaging Asian poultry stocks in late 2003 and has killed at least 153 people worldwide.
So far, the disease remains hard for people to catch, and most human cases have been traced to contact with infected birds. But experts fear it will mutate into a form that is easily spread among people, possibly creating a pandemic that could kill millions.
South Korea has also been hit by a low-grade strain of bird flu that is not harmful to humans. North Korea, meanwhile, has stepped up prevention measures, by inoculating poultry and closely monitoring migratory birds, the country's official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday.
Bird flu hit North Korea early last year, prompting the slaughter of about 210,000 chickens and other poultry. No new cases of bird flu have since been reported.
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I borrowed it myself. I think it's the midwest.
I've been in Texas for 20 years. Thus far I have never seen a live armadillo in Texas.
According to the latest report, the government lab ruled out bird flu as the disease which killed poultry in Seosan. They are now working on to determine what it really is.
I thought that was dinner?
I don't think it is unusual for birds to be hit by cars. I have picked several dead birds out of the front of my cars over the years. If they died of an illness I can't see any reason they would die on the road side, most likely they would die in the bushes.
The chicken crossed the road just to show the armadillo it could be done.
I had a NY friend (she has now moved to CA). A group of women friends took a trip together and the NY friend who had lived in Houston for 5 years said she hoped to eat BBQ ribs and see an armadillo before she left TX. I was able to provide both of those experiences for her. I spotted the biggest armadillo I have ever seen running down the side of the road and then we had some great ribs near Marble Falls.
Scarey !
Marble Falls is great...love to eat at the Bluebonnet Cafe!
I ran over an armadillo and it survived/dodged the truck. When it jumped while the boat trailer was over it was not pretty. Splatter deluxe.
well let's see- they're about to wipe out millions of cats and dogs because the bird flu kills only a couple of people each year, but yet they won't do anythign about N. Korea's nukes that could wipe out millions of people? I'm missing the urgency in the cat culling agenda I guess. http://sacredscoop.com
According to the latest report, the government lab ruled out bird flu as the disease which killed poultry in Seosan. They are now working on to determine what it really is.
Thanks for the updated correction. It's getting hard to keep track.
Well, I doubt that it's in international press yet.:-)
They really are cute. The best time to find one is when it is dusky or cloudy in a heavy wooded area. You will hear them poking around in the leaves looking for grubs. Stay still because they have poor eyesight, but great hearing and sense of smell. It is possible to have one come within a few feet of you if upwind.
As a kid, we would try to catch 'em. You can get hold of the body, but once they get their claws into a burrow, you cannot overpower them. Soon they will win the tug of war and scoot down their hole.
I saw a pen of them at Six Flags during a Texas Festival. The handler said that the little critters were very personable and each one is different. One of them came up to him like a puppy and begged to be cuddled. Very interesting.
You can catch human-type leporsy from armadillos.
"Armadillos are often used in the study of leprosy, since they, along with mangabey monkeys, rabbits and mice (on their footpads), are among the few known non-human animal species that can contract the disease systemically. They are particularly susceptible due to their unusually low body temperature, which is hospitable to the leprosy bacterium. Wild armadillos can carry leprosy, but transmission to humans is rare."
Those dang things have some nasty looking teeth....
I have heard you can but don't know if that is true. I'll ask my brother he is a vet. when I was a kid I pulled one out of his hole by his tail, boy was he strong! That is the only one I have ever touched. We have them right here in our yard in the middle of Houston. They come out at night and dig holes in my yard, I never seen them except dead in the street.
Dangers like teeth and diseases meant nothing to a kid with a bunch of cousins running after some poor animal through poison ivy draped woods. It is a wonder my generation lived long enough to breed and produce a generation of bicycle-helmeted, bubble-wrapped children. LOL.
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