H5N1 - Avian Influenza aka Bird Flu and raw meat warning.

The "warning" post is one of those "studies" that while considered
"scientific" does NOT equate to yet another perceived danger of raw
feeding.

Of course natural feeders research the sources of their raw meaty
items; personally, I only use products from the US. Just getting
something from a local butcher shop doesn't necessarily mean that the
meaty item came from a local farm or even a domestic (as in within the
U.S. Borders) farm. An inquiry to the butcher revealed the rabbit they
sold there haled from CHINA of all places! Needless to say they kept
their rabbit. I never use road kill and the mice I offer I have bred
and raised myself. I don't feed Muscovy duck, nor Whooping Swan to my
ferrets either.

All the other products I get are clearly labeled as to their place of
origin. - Not so with kibble ingredients- just that it might be MADE
or MANUFACTURED in the U.S.

Force feeding deliberately infected raw meat via a stomach tube does
NOT correlate to a danger from eating raw meat in my mind! HOW MUCH
infection was within that meat? What was the immune system health of
the ferret BEFORE the forced infection? Could there have been tearing
of the alimentary canal, leading to a direct to blood transfer of the
virus? Were these ferrets raised as naturally fed ferrets? Or were they
previously fed kibble and only force fed the infected meat? Why was it
necessary to FORCE feed the ferrets? Who knows? Maybe some instinct
would have told them to avoid eating it altogether? This is a superb
example of how a scientific "study" does NOT automatically equate to
real life!

Ferrets are routinely used, like mice, and rats and primates as lab
animals for research regarding humans. It comes as no surprise to
me that labs would be utilizing ferrets as markers for yet another
influenza virus. Ferrets have already been instrumental in developing
other Flu vaccines and studying other flu viruses.

This site here shows the current historical timeline of H5N1:
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/Timeline_09_01_21.pdf
when it started, where it has been found and how many people affected
and reported dead from the virus. The outbreak first appeared in 1996-
13 years ago. Japan has reported H5N1 cases. Japan is a modern country
with a large population of ferrets too. I don't speak Japanese, but I'd
be willing to bet that feeding ferrets a natural diet is not just done
in the US, the UK and Australia! IF there was a serious threat of cross
species infection from eating raw poultry, I'd bet that within the 13
years since the original outbreak - the ferret community would have
heard about it by now! Regardless of whether we can speak Japanese!

Flu viruses mutate and develop constantly, but so don't immune systems.
While it is tragic for those people, families and economies lost to the
onset of a viral attack; populations under attack eventually rally and
the virus becomes just one more thing animals and humans are immune to.
Already in Cambodia a 19 year old man has been confirmed as a survivor
from an infection of H5N1!

Know your sources? Certainly! And realize that a scientific study is
NOT a representation of the real world!

[Posted in FML 6246]