It was probably mentioned a million times at the dinner tables over the Thanksgiving holiday this year.
Especially because the traditional Thanksgiving meal is turkey.
You know what I’m talking about. The bird flu.
Just to be on the safe-side, my mother cooked this year’s bird so long, it went from an original weight of 26-pounds to 12! And it was drier than the Mohave desert.
Thank goodness for gravy!
There isn’t a day that goes by where the old bird flu isn’t mentioned by the talking heads of CNN, Fox, MSNBC, among the others.
And if you’re like me, you’re quite simply sick of hearing about it. Yet the fact is that it is becoming a very serious problem.
I read a news story this morning that said Chinese officials claim that the bird flu virus in humans has mutated. That’s bad news for anyone who doesn’t want the bird flu.
Bird Flu Strain Mutates
Chinese health representatives have found that the H5N1 strain of bird flu, the one that human’s can contract, has mutated as compared with strains found in human cases in Vietnam.
Today the Xinhua news agency reported that Chinese labs have found that the genetic order of the H5N1 virus seen in humans infected in China is different from that found in humans in Vietnam.
Health official’s worst fear is that the virus could mutate to the extent where it is easily transmitted from human-to-human.
In this event a global pandemic capable of killing hundreds of millions of people would be possible.
Brian Hicks has been talking about the bird flu in his New America Investor and even recommended a bird flu stock that he believes is going to go hyper-ballistic.
You see once an American contracts the bird flu virus on U.S. property, I believe he’s right.
While we keep hearing bird flu cases in East Asian countries, have no doubt the bird flu is coming to the U.S.
In fact, it’s almost here.
Bird Flu in The Back Yard
The avian flu will soon encroach onto U.S. soil despite the efforts of health officials. It’s already in our back yard.
Last week Canadian authorities confirmed two wild ducks tested positive for the H5 bird flu virus.
While this is not the deadly H5N1 strain that is currently ravaging poultry stocks in Asia, the flu strain has every chance to mutate.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the ducks were discovered with the H5 virus at a farm just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia.
More than 67,000 ducks and geese will be terminated and officials will be investigating other operations within a 3 mile radius for signs of infection.
Following the latest outbreak, the United States and Taiwan has imposed a ban on poultry from the region and Japan banned all Canadian poultry imports.
But the U.S. continues to accept imports from the rest of Canada.
According to the USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service’s Web site, the U.S. imported $185.9 million in poultry and poultry products from Canada last year, a 37% increase from the previous year. Canada is the seventh-biggest exporter of poultry.
The deadly H5N1 virus has infected at least 130 people and killed 67 in Asia, since it first broke out in 2003.
And like I said, once it crosses the boarder, Brian’s bird flu play is going to go nuts.
– Luke Burgess
