Bird Flu Now Detected Into Seals

[marsh man]

According to the local news dinnertime they have detected Bird Flu into Seals so with a very big population of Grey Seals along the East coast how bad is it and how bad is it likely to get amongst other animals , no doubt the Seals have eaten the affected birds and the virus have passed on to the Seals . another case of wait and see .   MM

[Bigbob]

I think stuff like this will thin out a lot of stuff on the protected list , as once something is on the list it never seems to be removed and there numbers are artificially high 

[millrace]

Oh how i hope the seals get it!! There is a lord at work!!!!!!

[marsh man]

15 minutes ago, millrace said:

Oh how i hope the seals get it!! There is a lord at work!!!!!!

On the news tonight it said at the moment the numbers that have been affected are still small , we have got 100s along the East coast so we can afford to lose some but you don't know how good or bad these viruses will get and what other animals could get it  .   MM

[clam6364]

Brilliant news,could do with being wiped out by 90%

[Westley]

It won't be long before they blame lead shot ingestion   !   🙄

Then the Government can ban lead shot and claim a massive victory.

[39TDS]

41 minutes ago, clam6364 said:

Brilliant news,could do with being wiped out by 90%

Not all that brilliant if it makes the jump to humans and wipes out 90% of us. Wouldn’t be such a bad thing as long as me and mine were in the other 10% but I always reckoned with such things I’d be amongst the first to go.

[Acerforestry]

I'd be keen to know exactly how the diagnosis process works for this. I'm not being overly cynical of course, but interesting piece of history is that the inventer of the PCR test (as used a lot recently with humans) a man called Karey Mullis, categorically stated in interview that the PCR should not be used to diagnose viruses, if my memory serve me correctly. Which kind of blows a lot of this out of the water. You can't ask Dr Mullis to reaffirm, he passed away shortly before the pandemic. I will remain a staunch cynic of how many of these animals being culled, actually need to be 

Edited Wednesday at 20:20 by Acerforestry
Spelling

[marsh man]

17 minutes ago, Acerforestry said:

I'd be keen to know exactly how the diagnosis process works for this. I'm not being overly cynical of course, but interesting piece of history is that the inventer of the PCR test (as used a lot recently with humans) a man called Karey Mullis, categorically stated in interview that the PCR should not be used to diagnose viruses, if my memory serve me correctly. Which kind of blows a lot of this out of the water. You can't ask Dr Mullis to reaffirm, he passed away shortly before the pandemic. I will remain a staunch cynic of how many of these animals being culled, actually need to be 

Not sure if they mentioned anything about culling the affected Seals on the news , if big numbers caught it then you are talking about possibly 1000s , I went to look at the Seals on Horsey beach the other week and on this beach alone there is edging towards 4000 , then you have got another large number at Winterton and yet even more at Blakeney so you can see this could be a major concern 

[Acerforestry]

Ok, point noted on not culling seals, however a hell of a lot of other animals (fowl mainly, obviously) have already been done as a precaution, and I don't see it stopping any time soon. The concern is, if it transmits as they claim to mammals now do they then begin knocking those species off too to prevent spread. I'm really not at ease with how this is starting to sound

[islandgun]

After a quick google   It's like 'dead birds flying': How bird flu is spreading in the wild : Goats and Soda : NPR 

[marsh man]

33 minutes ago, Acerforestry said:

Ok, point noted on not culling seals, however a hell of a lot of other animals (fowl mainly, obviously) have already been done as a precaution, and I don't see it stopping any time soon. The concern is, if it transmits as they claim to mammals now do they then begin knocking those species off too to prevent spread. I'm really not at ease with how this is starting to sound

At the moment they have only found a small number of dead ones on Blakeney Point , but they would be really up against it with trying to control the spread of the virus , like trying to control the bird flu with wild birds , the wild geese around here will soon be moving back to the breeding grounds , they can be in Norfolk today and up in Scotland tomorrow and then visa versa at the end of the Summer .   MM

We only hear about it when a outbreak crop up with free range Chickens and Turkeys but it have been going on for a few years now and the numbers must be colossal , time they do get under control the damage could be un repairable .   MM

2 minutes ago, islandgun said:

After a quick google   It's like 'dead birds flying': How bird flu is spreading in the wild : Goats and Soda : NPR