Sunday 19 May 2013

Sunny summer or birds on the wing?

I'm no ornithologist. Week 7 had much to say about the approaching summer scaring away the H7N9 virus and the closure of live bird markets having stunted or stopped entirely the outbreak. 

I'm still not convinced - as I said yesterday. 

A continuation of that line of thinking, posed as question for today then; could the spread of H7N9 have peaked and fallen in relation to the travels of wild birds, not poultry? The paltry number of positive poultry cases could have acquired their virus from wild birds also. 

Also, how many of the males infected with H7N9 kept small birds as pets? Did any of them get those birds recently? Passerine birds, like the brambling, cover some distances when migrating with the seasons. The brambling also turned up amongst as co-contributor (of an H9N2) to H7N9's genetic makeup.

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