tmichael

Since the news of the EU ban first emerged, indeed to some extent since the latest wave of H5N1 over the last two winters, I've been hoping we'd start to hear calls for the bird trade to be banned completely, first in HK, and then hopefully thoughout the member countries of ASEAN, since they clearly aim to be a serious trading block, on a par with the EU, and since member states have been so much involved esp. Vietnam and Indonesia.

Having said that I think care is needed not to overplay the "wild birds carry H5N1" card - if they do it seems to me it is still much more likely they do so at low levels. It seems unlikely to me they play a major role in its spread - certainly munias don't - and none in its transmission to humans.

In any campaign these and other points must be emphasised; the elimination of any remote risk at all, the alleviation of wild bird suffering and the reduction of pressure on wild bird populations must be the main thrusts of any campaign.

I see this as a "silver lining" aspect to the sorry affair of H5N1, and to some extent to the even greater tragedy of SARS, since our government is clearly keen to be seen to be in the vanguard of attempts to fight potential epidemics.

Let's hope we see action quickly on this.

I'm sure a lot of us are ready to help in whatever way we can.

Mike Turnbull

tmichael

Referring to Richard Corlett's full message, posted by lmichael in another thread, I agree there should be no 'mixed message' over what we want - a total ban on the movement into and through the HKSAR of all wild caught birds.

What can the point be in targetting some species and not others?

Clearly, for enforcement purposes, the sale points of all bird species need to be heavily restricted and these need to be subject to daily inspection by trained AFCD staff.

I can hardly think of more important work our Conservation Department could be doing at this time.

The release of any birds at all into the wild must also be made an offence.

Mike Turnbull.

tmichael

It seems to me that we need to get across the following across to the wider public:

- Birds such as munias are almost certainly nearly all healthy when trapped in the wild.

- They are then being either infected from another source altogether (poultry-related?) or cross-infected from perhaps one flu-stricken individual in a consignment while literally jammed together in crates during transportation.

- Finally they are being wilfully released back into the wild in HK, having been infected while in captivity.


How ridiculous is it that the Govt. allows that all that to continue?

My only, really tiny, quibble with what Mike Leven has said is personally that I don't it's advisable to talk of HK "outbreaks". We await some kind of explanation of what happened at Green Peak Villa, but apart from that I don't think isolated cases, with little or no evidence of onward transmission in HK, should be characterised as "outbreaks" - not by us anyway! Maybe I'm misinformed in some way there.

The way this campaign has quickly gathered momentum is excellent - well done to Richard and Mike K. in particular for what they have presented to the media, and how they have presented it.

Mike Turnbull