one thing I havent heard on any of the radio interviews and discussions on this topic here in BC is just how of the rapid spread of the virus has to do with the 'factory' farming of the chickens
(ie. being raised in dark, cramped conditions just so the chickens
increase in weight a lot faster).

I also remember reading a new yorker article in the last year that made me think about eating factory raised chickens (ie. a huge pile
of dead and dying chicks - when they clean out the building)

Of course you will get scavenger birds, what do you see when you go to a dump - seagull, crows etc. no wonder some residents dont trust
the govt and dont want them dumped in their landfill.

I understand the main reason they want to nip this in the bud, is not because of the danger to humans from avian flu, but the danger of it mutating in to something worse. (only a month before the sars outbreak, last year I read a science magazine article about the threat of a massive flu virus. Apparently every few years as the influenza virus mutates, there may be an extremely virulent mutation once or twice a century - just like the spanish flu of 1919 which killed more people around the world than wwI.
THe idea was that we are due for another big one, and the fact is that its far more likely to spread with modern air travel etc, and the scientists pushed for an end to the live markets in China.