Posted on 08/14/2006 6:37:49 PM PDT by markomalley
WASHINGTON -- Scientists have discovered the possible presence of bird flu in wild mute swans in Michigan -- but it does not appear to be the worrisome, highly pathogenic strain, the White House announced Monday.
"They believe it is a strain of low pathogenicity, similar to strains that have been seen before in North America," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.
Testing still is being done to confirm the presence of the virus and its type, officials said.
Scientists had feared that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu would reach North America sometime this year. Just last week, the U.S. expanded monitoring of wild migratory birds throughout the nation, to check for early warning signs.
However, health officials stress that the virus' appearance in wild birds would not be a public health crisis -- especially if it were the less worrisome, low-pathogenic strain.
I hope their smart enough to segregate the birds, rather than kill them all. If we kill every flock with a case of bird flu, they'll never develop immunity to it.
ping the list
An earlier report on Fox said it was found on the shores of Lake Erie. Yes, I know.
Don't worry. Someone from "Dearbornistan" will stick a cellphone in some C4 and cram it up a stray duck's rectum and solve this problem for us.
The new American Dream is a Mexican swimming to Europe with a Muslim under each arm.
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