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A Memorial Day Note To The Birds Who Will Soon Die
Sadly, H5N1 (bird flu) is likely to kill hundreds of millions of birds
Roaring Rivers
Torrents, currents, and ripples by Christyl Rivers, PhD
Dear birds, I am so sorry.
It’s Memorial Day 2013. Birds are dying, all over the world. The California Condor, back from 1989 brink of extinction, has already been struck.
Researchers have recovered 21 dead Condors, (just the ones found, of course) and they expect to find many more.
A vaccination is being prepared for these rare birds, but the program is costly and untested. We shall know — and notice? — when this gigantic bird species soars — or is never seen again.
Condors are not the only birds to die of H5N1. It began with poultry in China in 1996. Outbreaks now are coming more quickly and devastating flocks and farms around the world.
(Please don’t blame China. Our whole world trades with them. Our USA record on spillover, zoonotic, disease and prevention is almost as bad, as the COVID pandemic has shown.)
Projected numbers of birds that will die are in the hundreds of millions of birds. HPAI, (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza) can also can spill over into mammals. For now, human…