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Biotech / Medical : SARS and Avian Flu -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: AugustWest who wrote (173)	4/21/2003 9:22:39 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4232

It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next while. In livestock... well, I am most familiar with bovine corona viruses, and they are, by far, a much greater problem in winter and spring. Also the greatest problem in "confinement housing" operations such as those used for raising veal calves. These viruses can get very hot very quickly and will race along through herds like mad. However, once the good summer weather comes, even a very hot run of shipping fever, etc... will usually konk out PDQ, especially on farms where animals can get outside into the sunlight. Obviously, weather doesn't really apply to confinement housing set-ups such as those described above. However, disease movement from farm to farm usually drops right off once the weather improves. BTW, I heard a TO doctor mentioning that he suspects the virus may peter out once the weather improves. Gotta remember, the weather is pretty crappy up here at the moment... Last week, we had temps of 85F one day, and 28F with 2 inches of snow the next. Everyone and his brother has some kind of cold at the moment. Give us a couple of weeks of bright, sunny, warm days, and you won't hear a cough again until November. We may find that Mother Nature will save the day by cutting off the spread of this particular outbreak....this time. Make no mistake though. I expect this disease to reappear periodically -- probably in the typical cold/flu season from time to time. Anyhow, to me, if this virus persists into warm, sunny summer weather, then I think that'll be a good indicator that this is one very nasty bug. However, if it konks out as I kind of expect, then it will be acting much like many of the similar diseases that make the rounds in livestock -- big trouble, especially in crowded beef feedlots and barns in winter, but barely seen in summertime when animals are out in the sun. Something about those scenarios also contains a message on "human livestock husbandry". Overcrowded living and feeding conditions are breeding grounds for disease. We, as humans, seem to think we are immune to the same conditions that lead to disease outbreaks in livestock. Personally, I think all life forms are subject to many of the same rules.