Bird Flu

I didn't really need Norfolk Blogger to wind me up about Bird Flu. I have already been petrified at the prospect for a good couple of Winters. If we don't keep it under control and it starts spreading from human to human, we are in trouble as there aren't enough antiviral drugs to go round. With a child and (albeit a very young) 55 year old in this house, I worry.

Today's news about the outbreak in Suffolk is much worse than the death of a lonely swan in picturesque Cellardyke last year. I guess I just have to put my faith in Ross Finnie who was almost univerally praised for his performance during the Foot and Mouth epidemic in 2001.

As an aside, I am a fairly committed carnivore but do try to make sure that what I eat has had as good a life as possible. My daughter, at 7, already refuses completely to eat meat. She loves animals and cannot reconcile herself to the idea of eating them. This causes me no end of grief as I panic over whether she's getting enough protein as she doesn't like many of the more reliable non animal sources, but she's growing, she's healthy and she's pretty much perfectly built so maybe I should just relax.

I wonder if the reports of the conditions in which these birds were kept will help to improve life for them in the future. What struck me was someone saying that they didn't know how the virus could have got in because the birds never went outside - that's 160,000 of them, all cooped up in not very much space. Maybe awareness of their plight will inspire people to be more choosy about what they buy.