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Deadly Avian Flu Strain Penetrates Biosecurity Defenses In Seoul
sciencehabit writes "A new, deadly H5N8 strain of avian influenza penetrated the biosecurity defenses of a National Institute of Animal Science (NIAS) campus near Seoul, prompting authorities to cull all of the facility's 11,000 hens and 5000 ducks. The incident highlights the difficulty of protecting poultry farms from circulating avian influenza viruses. 'We are taking this situation very seriously,' said Lee Jun-Won, deputy agriculture minister, at a press conference yesterday in Seoul. He noted that NIAS has the country's most secure facilities and most vigilant staff. Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus: wild birds, NIAS vehicles, and supply deliveries. 'We will determine the reason for the infection, and we are going to hold those responsible accountable,' he said."
Nature is most perseverant. Sure glad I don't eat any poultry products, by products from Korea. At least, I don't think I do, but that Poisoned Milk thing from China showed just how global food distribution is, even to a seemingly unrelated supplier half way around the world.
perhaps we could learn to enjoy rubber chickens
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
OK... Just how do you hold wild birds accountable???
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
Watch out for the Zombies, and a malicious A.I.
Instead of fighting with the flu virus, why don't we negotiate with it? Maybe if it understands that it is harming us, we will all find a way to peacefully co-exist.
I read TFA, but I'm still not clear on this...did the virus escape from the facility's biosecurity defenses and infect animals in the wild, or did the virus penetrate the biosecurity defenses from animals in the wild to infect the facility's animals?
It's North Korea's doing. An inspired variation of the urban myth of putting smallpox into blankets; except this one actually happened.
"Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus"
"Kim Sung-Il, head of the contingency team at the Rural Development Administration"
I blame a saboteur with an infallible fake identity!
"Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus"
I wasn't clear if that meant out of their research building and onto the campus at large, or from offsite onto campus, but now I see a quote in TFA that clarifies it:
. Lee said they were looking at three possible routes the virus could have taken onto campus: wild birds, NIAS vehicles, and supply deliveries
So this seems much less scary, when I first read the summary, I thought a research virus had escaped from their facility to their bird flocks, but now it seems clear that someone tracked in the virus from outside, which is not surprising since it's hard to disinfect an entire supply truck.
I read TFA, but I'm still not clear on this...did the virus escape from the facility's biosecurity defenses and infect animals in the wild, or did the virus penetrate the biosecurity defenses from animals in the wild to infect the facility's animals?
If it was clear it wouldn't be on /., silly :)
Of course, if it can go one way, likely it can go the other.
In the age of the airliner, a poultry farmer wipes his nose the wrong way, shakes another guy's hand, 2d guy gets on a jet to Hong Kong, jet stops long enough to change crews and off to sunny California. Kills the guys in the first village, flight crew spreads it to Hong Kong, then right to the US in less than a day.
We're fucked. Sooner or later. It's happened before.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre...
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with all your metadata.
I would bet on the boots the workers are wearing. The treads are amazing at carrying around material.
has closed its borders.
It's true, one day any life ends. With some artificially created killer virus things might just speed up a bit. I hope I can see all the people I hate die before me. They earned it by making the life of everyone else miserable.
Sincerly yours,
guy-with-cancer
This pork-barrel* will have a body count when it's all over: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bio_and_Agro-Defense_Facility/
* Rammed through by Senator Pat Roberts, who hilariously will probably lose re-election to an insane Tea-Bagger.
When are people going to learn that "regular" influenza kills more people than this "deadly" strains every year?
"... disinfecting and shoeing away wild birds ..." Must've taken a lot of shoes to shoo that many birds away.
"Decimate" is to kill 1 in 10, not entirely eliminate.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Zerg are too strong in south korea. Nerf plz David Kim.
This story made me think of the game "Plague Inc." by Ndemic Creations. I currently play it on my phone while in transit.
The idea is to mutate and spread a pathogen (bacteria, virus, fungus, parasite, prion, nano-virus, bio-weapon, neurax worm, and the zombie-making necroa virus) until the whole world is dead, mind-controlled (neurax worm), or zombified (necroa virus).
One of the ways to infect everyone is to acquire the ability to spread through birds, just like this article is about.
The game aims to be close to reality in the way things could happen. It's cheap too: In game, I spend US$0.99 to get the full version and then played the game through until all the bonuses were unlocked without spending another dime.
"The hallmark of humanity is the ability to move beyond sensory inputs" - Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
No real, hard scientific proof that DDT hurt birds... hard proof that it did indeed save thousands of human lives by killing malaria infested mosquitoes. But hey, if it's only Africans that get sick and die from Malaria, who cares, right?
http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C06/C06Links/www.altgreen.com.au/Chemicals/ddt.html
Animal on the outside infected the birds at the research facility, according to the article.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on