do bird flu efect the egg of an infected hen? is it safe eat (egg)?
100103
Yes, the egg can get infected.  \n\nYes, it appears that it is safe to eat the egg if properly cooked.\n\nNo, it is not recommended.\n\nThe following exerpt comes from my source:\n\n"Can I become infected with the bird flu by consuming eggs or other poultry products from infected birds? \nThere is no evidence that anyone has been infected with the Asian bird flu or other bird flu virus by eating properly cooked eggs or other cooked poultry products derived from infected birds. Cooking food to 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 degrees Celsius) will kill bird flu virus if it is present. Nearly all of the more than 100 human cases of the Asian bird flu that have been diagnosed recently in Asia have had direct contact with infected chickens, ducks, turkeys, or their environment. This suggests that close contact with infected birds has been the primary route of transmission for the Asian bird flu infections, rather than eating food derived from infected birds.\n\nAlthough strains of bird flu virus like the Asian bird flu that cause severe disease in poultry can result in the contamination of egg shells and the inside of the egg (the yolk and albumen or the egg white), hens with severe bird flu usually stop laying eggs, so few contaminated eggs are likely to be marketed. Furthermore, the U. S. government has taken steps to prevent infected birds or their products, including their eggs, from entering the U.S. food supply. "
461321
Yes...\n\nMy job requires looking at hundreds of avian influenza articles per week. It influences me as a form of torture.\n\nEventually, however, avian influenza will influence all of us. There is the possibility it will mutate into a form that infects upper respiratory tract cells, and thus spreads from person to person. The probability of that happening is undetermined. \n\nEven if that doesn't happen, avian influenza has had a profound affect upon the poultry industry of every country in which it has been found. The U.S. pountry industry (if you are in the U.S.) will be less affected than many other countries, because so many of our chicken's are raised indoors. Nevertheless, the U.S. pountry industry will have to undergo many regional culls. This will actually drive the price of poultry down, as we have seen in other countries, because people will be scared to buy chickens. The economic ripple effect will be felt by everyone, in one form or another.\n\nBut, we will survive. All chickens will be raised indoors, in time.\n\nThe U.S. might experience less regional outbreaks of avian influenza than other countries, because West Nile Virus has devastated local wild bird populations - meaning there is less of a vector for avian influenza to use. However, migratory bird populations, such as ducks, will still spread it to farms where chicken's and other poultry are exposed to the outdoors.
1020451
Actually bird flu is affecting people. Well over 200 people world wide have been infected with the virus. The fatality rate is over 50%, and it has been spreading across Asia, Europe and Africa.\n\nMany of these infections have resulted from close contact with poultry, but there are several clusters of infection where the virus has been spread from person to person. \n\nOne recent cluster was on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. A woman contracted the disease and it spread from her to seven members of her family. Seven of the eight family members died.\n\nRight now we are seeing only limited person to person transmission. The fear is that the virus will mutate so that person to person transmission will happen easily and we will have a pandemic.\n\nEverytime a person gets avian flu (bird flu) there is a chance of it mutating so that it can be early spread.\n\nWe do not have a vaccine for this particular virus. They can't start working on a vaccine until it does mutate and it will take about 6-8 months to begin to produce vaccine.\n\nThe antiviral medicine Tamiflu may reduce the symptoms and reduce the chance of death, but there isn't enough Taniflu. At this point it looks as though medical personnel may get the first doses so that they can continue to take care of patients who have the flu.\n\nThe government has asked people to prepare for the flu by stocking supplies for our families in case we are asked to  practice "social distancing." That would be a quarantine where people are told to stay home to reduce the spread of the disease. Schools would close, there would be no church services, concerts, meetings, etc.\n\nWe are asked to have food, water, medicine, medical supplies, etc.\n\nIf you are interested in knowing more about bird flu, a good source of information is http://www.avianflutalk.com/  You will find current news, discussion, information about bird flu, and people who will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
333578
im from indonesia, its so damn dangerous in my country. the bird flu has spread everywhere. you must take care for your pet.
351074
If you dont work around chickens or bird more then likely you will not catch it.  Cook you chicken really good before eating it tho.
91705
I live in a country where the bird flu has just hit. Thank god it's put under control - but a precautions list was released in the paper recently. Generally, you can still eat the chicken and its eggs (even if it is sick) - but they will have to be THOROUGHLY cooked. That means, no runny yolk from eggs, and no pink parts on the chicken. It has to be really, really cooked that the chicken is completely white, and bone marrows are burnt dark brown. No blood. No pink parts.\n\nThe virus (if present) in the chicken will die from the heat. So no worries there...\n\nAlso, when dealing with chickens - it's best to wear rubber disposable gloves and avoid contact with the chicken at all costs. Always scrub and wash the tools and place where you cut the chicken for preparation. Wear a mask if you want to..\n\nThe bird flu is here, and it just made cooking a whole lot harder. But the good news is: you can still eat at your favorite KFC... =P
316579
No. Bird flu only kills birds, plus about 100 unfortunate humans to date.  But if it mutates into a form that can be transmitted from human-to-human, then a lot of people might get sick (10%? 20%? who knows).  The pandemic would last until practically every person on earth had been exposed to the virus.  That's what happened last time around, with the "Spanish Flu" epidemic of 1918-1919.
13027
There is no vaccine for it and low resistance. People who are weak will die more easily. It is not 100% fatal, just very severe.\nThe real danger may be that it could reduce the population of birds, both domestic and wild.  The damage to food production could be very bad.
596086
All of the published medical journals I've read, report that after previous years, a vaccine, I believe, has been found to help control the illness. It's unfortunate about the individuals who became ill while working with domestic poultry, however research, particularly in Hong Kong, and other research facilities have made great headway. I hope that you are not someone who is at risk for illness. If you feel you're at risk, then go to your nearest public health facility in your country for help, and/or treatment. Best wishes!
590006
Doesn't much matter what I think, or what you think. There will, or won't be a mutation in the current avian flu which will make it contagious in humans. But learing something about it will probably help with worrying. If you eat poultry, make certain it is fully cooked, both to prevent salmonella infection and to lessen any chance of passing on the avian flu. \n\n=======\nflu viruses\n\nFirst some background on flu viruses. It's a large family.  There are flus which infect birds (we're looking at a really strong one now -- it's killing essentially all of some species, eg chickens), which infect pigs (there was a swine flu panic during Gerald Ford's Presidency), which infect humans, and ... Usually, bird flus infect only birds, as in this case. There are only about two hundred people, and a few cats, known to have been infected with this avian flu. it's ot very good at infecting us -- so far. The really scary thing is that about 1/2 of them have died. Very few diseases have a mortality rate that high.\n\nFlu viruses sometimes swap bits with each other and acquire the ability to do new things, like infect another species. A pig flu infects a bird and the two flus 'mix and match' and produce a new flu capable of infecting a human, perhaps. Or some other combination. Most of this seems to go on in SE Asia, where duck ponds, a few pigs, and the humans family live in very close quarters. This cross species stuff doesn't seem to be all that common. Human flus have undergone major changes only every few years (2 or 3 since WWII) for instance, and if those changes are the result of this shuffling business, there's an indication of the chances of thsi one branching out to people. Perhaps.\n\n=======\nprior bird flus in humans\n\nIn fact, we know of only one large pandemic caused by a bird flu, or at least by a flu which had bird characteristics. That's the one in 1918, which has only recently been pinned down as a bird flu. Some researchers went looking for bodies which had been buried in the Arctic and remained frozen since 1918. After a decade's work digging in the permafrost, samples from them finally yielded enough information to reconstruct the 1918 virus, and it was a characteristically bird sort. It's still not clear what made it so deadly, but at least we're pretty sure what it was now. It popped up, killed something like 50 million folks around the world in 18 months or 2 years, and vanished.\n\n===========\nfuture possibilities\n\nIf the present bird flu changes enough to infect humans, and stays very contagious as it is now in birds and as nearly all flu viruses are, it may be a rerun of 1918 for humans. And if it retains its current lethality in humans (50+% so far, in a very small sample), it will probably be a good deal worse than the 1918 experience. We have more people, packed more closely, and with little margin (extra food capacity, medical capacity, sewerage and water capacity, ...), so things should be worse, all things being equal -- as they obviously are not.\n\nThere are a few things this bird flu does which appear to be new. When infecting humans, it seems to be able to spread by food. Most flus, human flus anyway, don't. This is new. And, it attacks nearly all tissues, while most human flus have largely been respiratory diseases. This is also new. Finally, it is essentially 100% lethal for chickens, also new behavior. Whether a changed avian flu which readily infects humans will contiue to behave these ways, or whether there is something specially vulnerable about the 200 some folks known to have been infected with it, is not known. It may be that lots of people have been infected, shock it off as a cold or something, and never saw a doctor. We don't know.\n\n==========\ndefenses\n\nUnlike 1918, we understand what we can do to beat any new flu variant. Vaccines work pretty well on all the flus we've encountered so far. The problem with deve
134487
Bird Flu is transmitted in the respiratory secretions of infected birds.  It is unlikely you'd ever contract the disease unless you had very close contact with live or recently deceased chickens.  Cooking kills the virus.  Currently (thank goodness), it cannot be transmitted from human to human like regular flu can.
178306
The symptoms of bird flu (Avian influenza) are\nSore throat\nCough\nFever\nPneumonia\nRespiratory distress\nRespiratory failure\nLife threatening complications\nThe symptoms of bird flu can depend on which virus caused the infection. If you have flu like symptoms the chances of you having Bird flu are very very very very small. Bird flu is a virus that primarily affects birds. Humans have caught the disease but only in a few very rare cases in the Far East and in Turkey. All people who have caught bird flu had close contact with infected birds.
48536
Also, if u don't eat birds (if ur a vegetarian) u won't get the bird flu. Vegetarianism also has a lot of other benefits. The PETA and Vegan Outreach websites have a lot of info on that.
220354
As it stands right now, most people are safe from the bird flu. The other answers are right in that you have to handle infected birds to get the virus. Most of the time, we are safe from a virus that is carried by another species. Occasionally, however, a virus mutates in such a way that it is able to "jump species" and infect humans. When this happens, our immune system is little prepared to defend us from the unusual-type virus. The good news is that right now it can only pass from birds to humans. If it should mutate to the point that humans can pass it amongst themselves, then it will likely become pandemic. Therefore, the fears that people are having are based on "scientific possibility" and the government is responding to those fears; not creating the fear.
247424
It is highly unlikely. Bird flu is easily transmitted among birds and so far only transferred with difficulty among humans. The human victims have lived near chickens and so far the flu has not been transmited past one person. The concern is that the virus might change so that it is more easy for humans to catch it. If there is any suspicion that a bird may have bird flu, it is killed and being stored in a freezer after death would be likely to kill the virus.
150583
In people, bird flu usually begins much like conventional influenza, with fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches, but bird flu can lead to life-threatening complications.
196144
you have nothing to worry about. if a chicken comes down with H5N1 it will be culled as current policy holds. and dont worry, so will every other chicken within a certain radius. The virus dont stay in the chicken for long after death. its spread by its poo anyway. And then additionally you'll be cooking it anyway, so yeah, no worrys. eat away