Bird Flu

[bramble]

Bird flu.

Don't know if anyone heard it on the news, but we have bird flu in Ireland. Four swans found in Antrim with the disease

[dragonz]

not been mentioned on bbc news 24, just the one in Scotland they are going on about

[andrewo]

The news only mention what they deem to be of significant interest i.e. what will scare the sh** out of viewers or make them go awwwww. I always remember the Bill Hicks joke about the media and the news, they're on the television screaming death, war, famine, death, war, famine and Bill Hicks looks out the window and all he can hear is crickets. Same here, not every bird will drop dead overnight...clunk, clunk, clunk

[sewer rat]

Loved Bill Hicks - thought he was one of the funniest men I've ever seen.

[andrewo]

Such a loss to comedy, saw him in London on one of his final tours, my sides nearly burst and he had such a sharp tongue.

[bramble]

They now say it was a false alarm. 6 swans found dead together but not bird flu....... I wonder??????

[nick the grief]

You stand more chance of winningthe lottery that bird flu Mutating to humans apparently. I was listening to some journalist yesterday on my way up north & he was slagging off all the media for the scare tactics that were going on. As he pointed out, there is a greater problem with TB in cattle that Bird flu in poultry but now one writes about that and it is as likely to mutate !!

At last the voice of reason in the media - Only wish I could remember his name!

[sewer rat]

Nick
Can you imagine the public outcry if we sanctioned the slaughter of badgers to control bovine TB.

[nick the grief]

Probably the same as the outcry when it was suggested that we cull the American Grey squirrel to give the Native Red squirrel a chance

Not to mention the American Signal Crayfish that is wiping out all our Native ones with some sort of Pox, am I starting to see some sort of connection here LD

[sewer rat]

Why do we continue to ally ourselves to the good ole US of A ? You'd think that after introducing the grey tree rat and the poxy prawn, they'd be happy with their lot, but no, lets drag the UK into a war and then we'll hit them with our latest tactic - friendly fire !

[nick the grief]

The real Irony is that they support the CITES convention so I can't send a cactus to anyone in the USA becaused it is an endangered speciaes there !!! I dan't think they are really going to run amok do you

[sewer rat]

Yeah, on paper they support CITES but the resources they put into their enforcement of it makes the UK look positively fanatical about it. CITES was one of the areas of expertise that I covered whilst working for C&E and I was given loads of support by various other agencies and NGO's. The yanks seemed to be incapable of doing anything without it being routed through sixteen departments for it to be considered - so there were a lot of off record conversations going on after hours, just to get the job done

[bramble]

Well said lads, you can both get down off the soap box now

[fruit&vegvirgin]

well, story on p.97 of the D.Tel today said it wasnt bird flu after all....

dragonz, do I know you from another site?

[bramble]

on our evening paper it said that it was the most lethal form of bird flu the swan had but it was a foreign bird washed up on the Scottish coast.