According to Radio Era, close to 300 ducks were found dead of avian flu in a campground near Alushta. Alushta is a small town in the Crimea, the penninsula that juts into the Black Sea south of here. (Map here--three across and three down then double click.) Most of the bird flu cases have come from the Crimea.
The report also said that there have been no reported human cases of bird flu but that the government was expecting them to start appearing in the spring and summer.
I don't know why they would be expecting human cases then other than that there would be more people out and maybe more children would be out that might play with birds. That would be the only added risk because because people from the villages here already kill, de-feather, clean and eat chickens, ducks and geese and not under the most hygenic of conditions. (Failing to wash hands thoroughly with soap afterward and using the same cutting board that is used for vegetables and bread even, happen all the time. ) But they are cooked throughly before eating. There is no recipe I know of for raw bird anything.
Notwithstanding the number of bird deaths in the Crimea, this seems to be good news. That there have been so many birds die and yet there hasn't been a single human case is cause for optimism, I would think.
More here and here.
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Avian flu
Bird flu
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