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So far, bird flu has infected 231 people around the world, and killed 134. Human casualties remain largely confined to Asia and to people who have had close and prolonged contact with infected birds, such as poultry farm workers. Worries about bird flu have also led to the destruction of tens of millions of poultry, mostly in Asian nations, as officials struggle to contain the virus. ---- North Carolina Beaches Issue Jellyfish Alert

Stock Investing Course (AXcess News) Washington - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) voiced concerns over indiscriminate poultry bans on imports that do not distinguish between infected and non-infected countries.

This is the first case of a flock of German farm poultry contracting bird flu, the wire service reports, although several cases of the virus were found in wild birds in Germany this year. Health officials remain alert to the possibility that the avian flu virus could mutate and cause it to be transmitted from human to human. Although the World Health Organization puts the number of human deaths from avian flu at 190, none of them is ascribed to contagion between humans, the AP reports.

Stock Market Game "Trade restrictions to safeguard human and animal health should be imposed only in proportion to the risk involved and... they should be removed promptly when no longer needed," FAO said in a statement, noting that some bans cover poultry from all countries, even those that have never experienced or are considered free of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus.

Normally the avian bird flu viruses do not affect humans but since 1997 (when the first case of avian bird flu among humans appeared in Hong Kong), this kind of flu has infected and killed several humans in the South East Asian countries. While WHO does not recommend avoiding travels to these countries, it does advice staying away from live animal markets and poultry farms. This is because the droppings of infected birds generally carry large quantities of the virus.

Stock Investing Game Such action increases the vulnerability of international global markets to price shocks and contradicts the spirit of the World Trade Organization (WTO), standards set by the intergovernmental World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and recommendations made by FAO, it added.

Intensive poultry farming may have been a factor in the global spread of bird flu, General Dr. Margaret Chan, who added that the majority of new diseases (including SARS, Ebola and bird flu) stemmed from animals, the AP reported.

Journal Prime Rate Street Wall But at the same time, countries exporting poultry products must ensure that any incidence of H5N1 is immediately transmitted to all trading partners and necessary steps are taken to limit its spread, it said of the virus that has recently spread to Europe from South-East Asia, where the current outbreak began.

or "bird flu", is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. While all bird species are thought to be susceptible to infection, domestic poultry flocks are especially vulnerable to infections that can rapidly reach epidemic proportions. December 2003, a growing number of Asian countries have reported outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in chickens and ducks. Infections in several species of wild birds and in pigs have also been reported.

Stock Market News "Bans on poultry products from disease-free countries increase uncertainties in the global meat market, which is already threatened by potential supply shortages and rising meat prices because of continuing BSE-restrictions on North American beef shipments," FAO noted, referring to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease.

Stock Investing Basics "Markets have also been affected by recent import restrictions on meat from Brazil, the largest meat exporting country, in response to recent cases of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD)," it said.

Stock Investing Software FAO reminded consumers that avian influenza is not a food-borne disease and that the bird flu virus is killed by the heat of normal cooking. "There is no risk of getting avian influenza from properly cooked poultry and eggs," it added.

Stock Market Trading Ever since the first human case of bird flu, linked to widespread poultry outbreaks in Viet Nam and Thailand, was reported in January last year, UN health officials have warned that the H5N1 virus could evolve into a global influenza pandemic if it mutates into a form which could transmit easily between people.

Stock Investing For Dummy The so-called Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920 is estimated to have killed from 20 million to 40 million people worldwide. In the present outbreak so far, there have been more than 121 reported human H5N1 cases, 62 of them fatal, all in South-East Asia. Some 140 million domestic birds have died or been culled in an effort to curb the spread.

Stock Market Crash FAO, the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the OIE and the World Bank are co-organizing a meeting in Geneva early next month to draw up a global picture of the threat and identify the next steps both to control the disease in animals and to prepare for a possible human pandemic.

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