11 de abril: La Gripe Aviaria según "The Lancet"

La prestigiosa revista médica The Lancet publica un editorial acerca de la Gripe Aviaria en la que se hace eco de cómo el principal y fundamental vector de transmisión del virus es el tráfico de pollos de coral y sus restos, llegando a citar el informe de Grain que cité aquí a principios de marzo. Este editorial comienza así: "Avian influenza goes global, but don’t blame the birds". Más abajo, afirma que "despite extensive testing of wild birds forthe disease, scientists have only rarely identified live birds carrying bird flu in a highly pathogenic form, suggesting these birds are not efficient vectors of the virus. Furthermore, the geographic spread of the disease does not correlate with migratory routes and seasons. The pattern of outbreaks follows major road and rail routes, not flyways. Far more likely to be perpetuating the spread of the virusis the movement of poultry, poultry products, or infectedmaterial from poultry farms—eg, animal feed and manure.But this mode of transmission has been down-played byinternational agencies, who admit that migratory birds arean easy target since nobody is to blame".