Flu panic rises as goats drop dead

The Times of India ^ | 25 Jan 2008 | Caesar Mandal

[Smokin' Joe]

MARGRAM (BIRBHUM): Hundreds of goats have died of an unknown disease over the past four days in Birbhum's Rampurhat block II.

Some experts warned that if the H5N1 virus — which causes bird flu — has jumped from birds to mammals, it could be the turn of humans next.

TOI met jittery villagers in Dakhalbati, one of the affected villages in Birbhum's Margram. Abdul Mohid, a farmer, said his goat was shivering and sneezing and saliva was oozing from its mouth. Mohid had called in a local vet, who could only say the animal was suffering from high fever but could not pinpoint a disease. Though he prescribed medicines, those have not worked.

[Smokin' Joe]

Ping...

[Ron in Acreage]

Herders not wearing condoms?

[Judith Anne]

Calcutta is a huge population center...

[VeniVidiVici]

Abdul Mohid, a farmer, said his goat was shivering and sneezing and saliva was oozing from its mouth.

If he lives near any Taliban camps he may want to check his goat for AIDS.

[Myrddin]

Calcutta is a huge population center...

Plenty of potential candidates to test out the virus. The close living proximity will allow it to spread quickly.

[Cacique]

btt

[blam]

"Calcutta is a huge population center..."

Yup. How many people fly out of there each day?

[grey_whiskers]

Are you being sarcastic?

Once H5N1 is established as a human-spread disease, the fecal material well and truly has hit the horizontally-oriented rotary air impeller device :-(

[grey_whiskers]

Sh*t, meet fan.

[Judith Anne]

GW, blam has been following this from the beginning. I daresay he is as knowledgeable (or more) as I am about H5N1. I am sure he was not being sarcastic, just factual.

[grey_whiskers]

My apologies, blam. What I did instead of thinking was knee-jerk : mentally contrasting "black hole of Calcutta" with "Mumbai" (or any other important outsourcing hub) -- to come to the same conclusion as you.

No cheers, unfortunately.

Going to do some heavy stocking up after work tonight.

g_w

[Gritty]

Calcutta may be a huge population center today, but if the Avian Flu jumps into the human-to-human mode there, it won’t be for long!

[null and void]

Yup. How many people fly out of there each day?

Pretty much everyone who can...

[ClearBlueSky]

My first thought too!
Muslims+ farm animals = STD for animals.

[blam]

"Going to do some heavy stocking up after work tonight."

Been sitting on 'go' for almost two years now.

[N3WBI3]

GOats are dying and whe don know why.... It must be bird flu! onoz!

[Smokin' Joe]

Well, if they are dying of the H5N1 variant of the flu, it is significant.

Not only are goats an item of wealth to many, they are a food source--milk, meat, cheeze. Additionally, the virus infecting mammals which have a generally lower respiratory tract tmperature than birds may mean the virus has adapted and can more readily infect humans.

Avian flu is suspected because it has been apparent in birds in the area, and because the symptoms are what one would expect, complete with seriously high death rates. Humans can catch this, even though human to human transmission is uncommon.

One means for humans to become infected is eating an the flesh of an undercooked infected animal.

I do not know if the milk would carry the virus.

If you consider third world conditions, with people and livestock closely intermingled in relatively small areas, the potential for large numbers of casualties exists.

[steve86]

Herders not wearing condoms?

This comment is a perfect example of why serious scientific/medical threads don't get the respect they deserve on FR and some of us have to head elsewhere.

[N3WBI3]

Maybe we should request another forum (similar to the religious forum) for scientific purposes?