The key to the problem is chinapost.com.tw
<Asia must change age-old farming practices to reduce contact between people and poultry to limit bird flu and prevent new animal diseases infecting humans, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
In launching a five-year plan to combat emerging diseases in the Asia Pacific region, WHO said on average one new disease had occurred every year for the past 20 years, mainly in Africa and Asia, and eventually one will become a pandemic.
"Even if you control avian flu, the next one is coming," said Dr Shigeru Omi, WHO's regional director for the Western Pacific, which stretches from China to Fiji.
...
"In my view this is connected by the differences in the farming practices. In the West farming practices are well controlled -- ducks, chickens and humans do not mingle together," Omi said.
"Unless we address this fast we have to expect more emerging diseases, particularly zoonoses." Zoonoses is the spread of disease from animal to human. >
The USA and other wealthy countries should fund vast duck and hen breeding businesses in Asia, making poultry so cheap that nobody bothers growing their own.
All Homeland Defence and military spending should be cancelled and sent instead to the front line where the real threat is. While Islamic Jihad might be a bit scary, the body count is only 3000 civilians, plus a few thousand military, plus another 1000 or so.
Citizens can do a better job than the military of controlling Islamic Jihad - they could have stopped the hijackings by leaving the cockpit doors locked and attacking the hijackers as soon as they stood up and started ranting about Allah.
With $500 billion spent on free hens, ducks and eggs, I think the avian flu would be out of business in a few weeks before it becomes humanized. Even $100 bn would buy a lot of free hens, ducks and eggs. People could stop growing hens in the kitchen and duck under the floor boards. Why bother when one can get free fowl and eggs, delivered to one's door?
Hey Presto, no more avian flu and no other diseases coming out of the seething morass of biological warfare in the tooth and claw evolutionary wild animal kingdom.
Animal husbandry is where it's at.
Okay, maybe don't cancel the whole budget, but just stop new spending and divert $100 bn or two to the much more serious threat. 50 million Americans could die from H5N1 and 50 million Europeans. At $1 million each, that's $100 trillion dollars in lost value. It's worth spending a small fraction of that, say 1% = $1000 billion, to stop that happening. It would only take 0.1% really, ie $100 billion.
Mqurice |
