# 1618
The Pakistani poultry industry must be pretty desperate, based on the propaganda being dispersed by their spokespeople the past couple of days.
We've come to expect the standard, `chickens and eggs are perfectly safe if thoroughly cooked' mantra, and if you can avoid infection during the preparation phase, that's likely true.
But the statements being made in Pakistan today, to allay fears of bird flu, go beyond the pale.
‘Poultry safe for use, no threat of bird flu outbreak’
* Government has set up 18 monitoring centres throughout the country
ISLAMABAD: Poultry meat and eggs are safe for use and there are no threats of bird flu outbreak, said World Poultry Science Association, Pakistan Branch President Dr Mohammad Sadiq in a press conference here on Tuesday.
He said that there was not a single case in the world where a person was reported to have died after touching the affected poultry meat.
“There is no possibility of bird flu outbreak and the prevailing rumours about the spread of disease are only based on incomplete information,” he added.
<snip>
He stressed that the affected chickens cannot survive for a long time and it is not possible to bring them into the market.
So to recap: There are no threats of a bird flu outbreak. There has never been a case of a human dying from touching infected poultry meat. Infected bird don't live enough to make it to market. And, oh yeah. There is NO POSSIBLITY OF A BIRD FLU OUTBREAK.
Okay, we got it.
Based on this, I guess we need to throw out all of the reports of people who have contracted the virus by touching infected poultry meat. And those stories of infected birds in wet markets? Balderdash! Can't happen.
Don't believe it? Ask the poultry industry.
This sage advice, which appears by the way, in The Daily Times of Pakistan, comes on the heels of the rant yesterday by the PPA (Pakistan Poultry Association) which claims bird flu is a giant conspiracy, designed to destroy the poultry industry.
Bird Flu ‘propaganda’ costs poultry industry billions: Association
ISLAMABAD, Feb 4 (APP): Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) Monday said the poultry business suffered billions of rupees loss on account of panic in consumers caused by, what he called, a propaganda of Bird Flu.
According to Geo News chairman PPA Abdul Basit said: “The Bird Flu propaganda is a well thought out conspiracy due to which the poultry industry has been pushed to the verge of collapse.”
He said the livelihood of the people associated with the poultry industry has become insecure as a result of the disease which, he maintained, is found in birds and which can hardly pose any real threat to the people.
The rumors on the streets and in the villages, and letters to the editors of the papers in Pakistan and India are even more extreme. The need not to believe bird flu is real is very strong. If bird flu is real, then for millions of people their jobs, their lifestyles, and a large part of their culture poses a risk to them and their families.
And for many, that's a concept too alien to accept.
An example appears today in India's Central Chronicle where a writer proposes that bird flu is caused by `dangerous combinations formed in foods when vitamin A supplements are mixed with other additives like antibiotics, protein, iron, copper, vitamin K, folic acid, fluoride, etc. Such additives are commonly used in poultry feeds.'
Now, this almost sounds reasonable. Creating artificially enhanced poultry feed that somehow inhibits the immune system of chickens, making them susceptible to bird flu. I've heard worse theories. . .
Unfortunately the writer didn't put down his pen:
The selling of toxic feeds, loaded with harmful ingredients, to the poultry farmers can even be an act of sabotage for spreading the Bird Flu deliberately. There is a big criminal conspiracy to completely ruin the poultry farmers, and to make them bankrupt, so that they can be forced to sell their lands at very low prices to the rich industrialists, corrupt bureaucrats and powerful politicians.
There is also another conspiracy against the people of India, as great panic is being created about the Bird Flu striking human beings. By creating such panic among millions of Indians, the multinational pharmaceutical companies want to sell their costly Bird Flu vaccines to healthy men, women and children, who don't need them.
The manufacturers of Bird Flu vaccines are only pretending to protect us from the disease, because the toxic vaccines are known to produce extremely harmful side-effects.
Leaving the best for last, the writer accuses the United States of creating the bird flu crisis so we can sell our high priced Tamiflu pills and syrup to unsuspecting people in the developing world.
The offer of USA to help India in checking the spread of Bird Flu in West Bengal and other states is a big hoax. The Americans are only interested in selling the toxic Tamiflu tablets and syrup at very high prices for use by human beings, even though the people are not affected by the Bird Flu. The people of India should avoid consuming any toxic drug like Tamiflu, which is not only useless but also dangerous.
Apparently the fact that Tamiflu is manufactured by the EVIL SWISS, not the EVIL AMERICANS, escaped his attention.
A minor point, but I wanted to set the record straight.
Unfortunately there is a receptive audience for these sorts of stories, with millions of people willing to believe that bird flu is nothing more than an elaborate plot by (fill in the blank) to destroy their economy, culture, and to enslave them.
Apparently that's easier to accept than the germ theory.
Obviously we need better education and public discourse on the dangers of bird flu, not just in affected countries, but around the world. Nations that aren't battling it today, may well be tomorrow.
If we have any hopes to contain, and eventually eradicate this virus, we're going to need the cooperation of many people, and the poultry industry, from nations all over the world.
From the looks of things, we have a long way to go.
