# 1121
The title is for Joe Penner fans out there. (I'll explain after the news)
Bird-flu found in German frozen ducks - were any eaten?
Posted : Mon, 10 Sep 2007 12:28:06 GMT
Berlin - Ducks infected with the H5N1 bird-flu virus might have been eaten by unsuspecting Germans, but would not have infected anyone once the meat was roasted, a state health official said Monday. He spoke after more than a third of a million ducks had been slaughtered at poultry farms and incinerated to curb an outbreak of the disease 140 kilometres north of Munich, in Germany's Bavaria state.
H5N1 avian influenza had been found in 18 deep-frozen ducks set aside as batch samples at a poultry-company slaughterhouse.
In Germany's biggest-ever animal-health cull, a total of 365,000 ducks were being destroyed in the small towns of Wachenroth and Schwandorf. The killing was set to be completed by Monday night.
Asked if infected meat from the Wachenroth butchery could have reached shops, Roland Eichhorn of the Bavarian consumer affairs ministry said, "We can't completely exclude that."
But he said that commerce officials moved after the first sign of the outbreak and impounded all meat produced at the farms on or after July 30. Federal animal-health scientists believed the outbreak began August 1.
"This type of duck is casseroled, and then the meat poses no danger to the consumer," Eichhorn said.
Pro-animal groups voiced rage at the cull, and said poultry farms should be made illegal.
Water birds are especially susceptible to the H5N1 virus, which can be fatal to humans. The fight against its spread is driven by the fear that the virus could mutate and possibly cause massive loss of human life worldwide.
Authorities are quick to diminish any threat to public health by stating that once cooked, these frozen ducks could be consumed safely. Of course, that leaves out the whole `defrost it on the counter, handle it, and prepare it for dinner' phase.
In places like Indonesia we hear almost weekly that someone contracted the virus after `preparing, cooking, and consuming' infected fowl.
Of course, millions of fowl are prepared each day in Indonesia, and while many of them are likely infected, only a handful of human infections occur. So while the odds of contracting the virus that way are remote, they are not zero.
Comforting.
Rather than spewing the message that the meat is safe once cooked, it might behoove officials to emphasize the safe handling of raw, potentially infected poultry. You know. In the interest of public health and safety.
But if they did that, no one would wanna buy a duck.
For those interested, Joe Penner was a radio comedian in the mid-1930's whose catchphrase was `Wanna buy a duck?'. Early in his career he would walk out on stage with some object under his arm, and ask "Wanna buy a . . .". It didn't get many laughs.
Then one day he did it with a wooden duck under his arm. The audience roared with laughter. Ducks, you see, are inherently funny.
A legend was born.
He made a handful of movies, mostly forgettable, and is largely forgotten today.
