# 4951
Back in the late 1920s my grandfather kept chickens in the backyard. Every Sunday morning he’d tell my Dad (who was a young boy at the time) to go out back and grab the sickliest looking bird for their Sunday meal.
It was a pragmatic decision back then, given the lack of refrigeration. And, of course, bird flu wasn’t a concern.
But today, sickly chickens are viewed somewhat more suspiciously, at least in regions where bird flu is endemic.
At least, that’s what we expect to happen.
But a story today from ANTARA news tells us that there are exceptions to that practice. A poultry vendor in East Java, Indonesia who had 60 chickens die suddenly last week, admits he sold the fresh carcasses to a wet market.
He claims he thought the birds died of a `normal sickness’, and so he didn’t report it to the authorities. Later his dead birds were tested and found positive for H5N1 bird flu virus.
Bird flu-infected chickens sold in E Java
Monday, August 30, 2010 20:44
Pamekasan, Ewat Java, Aug 30 (ANTARA) - A local chicken seller admitted that he sold 30 of 60 dead chickens to a wet market in Pamekasan district, East Java Province, recently.
About 60 chickens of Sofiullah, a resident of Bugih village, East Java, died of bird flu on August 24 but he did not immediately report this to local veterinary authorities.
Speaking to newsmen here Sunday, Sofiullah said he did that because he thought that they died of normal sickness. "I had even sold thirty or sixty dead chickens to the market," he said.
The matter-of-fact reporting of this case, and the focus of the reporter on the stability of poultry prices in the region, suggests that this sort of thing may be more commonplace than we might suspect.
Alerting the authorities that your chickens are sick or dying is undoubtedly bad for business, even if some form of compensation is offered. So it isn’t unusual to hear of a certain amount of reluctance on the part of bird owners to cooperate.
The good news is, just because infected birds entered the food chain, that doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone will get sick.
Given the wide geographic spread of the bird flu virus, it is likely that Infected chickens are sold, prepared, and eaten in countries around the world every day.
It is a testament to how difficult it is for people to contract H5N1 that we don’t have more human cases than we do.
Still, handling and consuming infected birds is not without risk, and public health officials will no doubt be keeping an eye on local clinics and hospitals in the area in case human cases show up.
