Birdflu:end it NOW: $12/chicken head in Indonesia

[oscar111]

Since observers have been complaining that the Indonesian government is just not doing anywhere near a good job in controlling aivan flu..

eg. not doing mass cullings, which are the key to successes elsewhere... not doing them, due to " lack of funds"....

i suggest that we all urge independent charities, UN agencies, and anyone else..

to simply offer indonesian farmers a bit above the going price for each chicken they "cull", since the deadly avian flu strain called H5N1 is so widespread in indonesia. {it is "endemic", or everywhere in Indonesia}
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TO AVOID FRAUD

To avoid fraud, the farmer would have to bring in the chicken head.

I vaguely recall that there are around 200 000 chickens in indonesia {anyone know for sure?}. So we are only in need of about two million dollars to stop birdflu's most dangerous mutation area. If my memory is off, and there are 200 million chickens, that still only would require funds of 2 billion, ... which is far far less than the price of a pandemic, even just the cost here in the US.


$120 billion was the cost estimate of pandemic to the US alone, in one scholarly study i have seen.. "not counting commercial losses". It equated the loss to that of a typical postwar recession. Human suffering was not , of course, tallied up in those dollars.

The Democratic Party needs to come out with its own reply to bush's plan. Our own plan. This post's plan to eliminate all chickens in Indonesia would be a fine start. Let Indonesia rebuild its chicken flocks about three years from now, after the virus has disappeared.

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To read my other idea.. on keeping birdflu out of the americas, by using our ocean barriers and infrared satellites to spot the few who could try to cross the oceans against our warnings,... see ---

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=222x8348


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FOR THOSE WITH TIME TO READ..
a similar plan has been carried out by a humanitarian group in east africa. Horrified by human slavery there, even today, they went in and just bought the slaves. Then set them free.

another case... environmental groups wanting to preserve wild areas have been just buying the land .. and thus keeping it unspoiled.

Stopping a pandemic is a worthy cause too. Donations might fund much of the needed money.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. I don't know a lot about disease control

but wouldn't it be a bad idea to bring all the diseased chicken heads to one place? Kind of unsanitary?

[shain from kane]

2. Mad chicken disease? Bring me the head of chicken Alfredo. n/t

[acmejack]

3. An excellent sensible idea!

Which is exactly why it will never be implemented. I would gladly buy a couple of chicken heads to contain the avian flu.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. It's 200 million

Thirty million households in Indonesian villages keep more than 200 million chickens in backyards, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.

http://www.meatprocess.com/news/ng.asp?n=67785-bird-flu

How do you propose feeding Indonesia in the mean time? Do you think that bird flu is not found in any wild Indonesia birds at all? Won't it just spread back to the chickens when they are introduced?

[oscar111]

10. Let them eat cake.

ho ho.

no, let them take the money and buy organic tofu with escargot, topped with almond flakes.

the money will feed them, seriously.

good point about later respreading into new chicks.

well.. hmmmm... mull... mull... some say industrial farms are the main spreaders, not wild birds. Laos is proof, since they are disease free and due to no indus. chicks.

besides.. my plan gains time. Time for us to find vaccines and fast vaccine cell prodcuuction methods.

[Pugee]

5. Unfortunately, they have already seen the virus in pigs this week.

Pigs have much more in common with humans than birds do. And they are suspecting human to human transmission in a family today, although it is just speculation.


http://visz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/woalert_read.php?id=6124&cat=dis&lang=eng

[SaveElmer]

6. Pigs have been able to contract it...but it is still a bird disease...

H2H transmission has been seen before, though not on this scale. However, the circumstances appear no different than these others. The virus has apparently not mutated, nor is it easier to catch. This cluster speaks more to the failure of the Indonesian Government and its inability to do what is necessary to control this.

[MercutioATC]

7. ...but pigs also house human viruses, increasing the chance of a H2H

mutation. That's why swine infections are especially concerning.

[SaveElmer]

8. That is true in some cases...however

There is no evidence that has happened in this case. In fact WHO has said specifically that genetic testing has shown no recombination with either human or swine flu DNA.

[MercutioATC]

9. True, to this point.

My point is that pigs are more "dangerous" hosts than, say, cats. There's a greater chance of H5N1 mutating into a human-to-himan transmissable virus in pigs than (unless I'm mistaken) any other animal besides humans. Even though that hasn'r happened so far, I think pigs with H5N1 are a concern.

[oscar111]

11. RECOMMEND please.. thank you .

nt

[frankenforpres]

12. why this wont work

it gives an incentive to breed more chickens, if each head gets you money

i think a chinese emeperor tried this with mice once(plague?). i didnt work for the reason stated

[oscar111]

13. only buy adult chickens, for one week: thereafter,

enforce a hundred dollar fine for anyone caught with chicks of any age.

carrot and stick approach, like used for gun roundups in places.

you sound like a clever lad... educated too. Can you devise any other clever way to fix the problem you posed?

thank you,
oscar the humorist

[MercutioATC]

14. What's to prevent them from selling the chicken already slaughtered?

They sell (possibly diseased) chickens already butchered and turn in the heads for $12/each.

That doesn't do much to prevent the spread of the virus...

[upi402]

15. they absolutely would

anywhere in asia