Before the people stopped, the chicken had an accident again. How can you live this day?
On November 27, US time, local media reported that the United States once again "suffered from highly pathogenic avian influenza."
In 2020, the United States also had an avian flu, culling 400,000 farmed birds to interrupt the transmission chain and control the epidemic. However, this time the avian flu is menacing, and by the 27th US time, a total of 52.3 million farmed poultry had been culled in the United States, and there was still no easing momentum.
In 2015, the United States already experienced a massive bird flu outbreak that culled 50.5 million poultry in 46 states. It seems that this bird flu in 2022 has officially surpassed 2015 and became the worst bird flu outbreak in the history of the United States.
This bird flu actually appeared in February this year. After a month of fermentation, at the end of March, the USDA recorded a total of 14 million cases. Cases of bird flu then snowballed, and despite farms across the United States culling poultry in an attempt to interrupt transmission, the outbreak continues to this day.
Poultry farms in the United States are typically large, with hundreds of thousands or even millions of birds per farm. As a result, tens of millions of poultry have died, and dozens of farms have lost their money.
Why is bird flu so scary?
Avian flu, since it is a cold in birds, what else is scary? Can't chickens, ducks and geese also drink more hot water?
To be precise, avian influenza is indeed short for avian influenza. However, influenza, or influenza, is a big deal in itself, an acute respiratory illness caused by the influenza virus. These diseases occur in both humans and animals and cause more severe symptoms than the common cold.
Moreover, influenza viruses are extremely mutant, producing a variety of variants, each variant has different subtypes, and a vaccine against one variant is impossible for another.
Therefore, when you hear reports of bird flu outbreaks, you will also hear the unique name of the virus that caused this trouble, often H and N plus numbers. For example, the cause of large-scale bird flu in the United States this year is a subtype of the H5N1 virus.
These letters represent two proteins: outer membrane hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). A virus is made up of a protein shell wrapped in a strand of RNA, and these H and N are the two viruses on its protein shell. The H and N proteins themselves also vary, with 16 subtypes of H and 9 N having them.
After scientists isolate the bird flu virus, determine which H and N the virus is made of, and name it according to the subtype, which is the H5N1 we see in the news.
After the virus enters the host, it is recognized by the host's immune system. The immune system recognizes viruses based on the characteristics of their protein coat and produces antibodies that specifically destroy these viruses. However, the host's immune system does not always kill the virus in time, and sometimes it causes a strong inflammatory response, killing the host itself before killing the virus.
Because the structure of viruses is very fragile, high temperatures are usually effective in killing viruses. However, the bird flu H5N1 virus that caused this disturbance has experienced summer heat since February, but it is still spreading in the United States. It is also found in Europe.
I have to say that this wave of bird flu in the United States this year is really not good.
Can bird flu be transmitted to humans? Will it come to China?
In the past, every time there was an outbreak of bird flu, there would be a careful advice from the grandmother in the family group, telling the children who were away from home not to eat chicken recently.
Of course, my grandmother's advice came from the concern of the elderly, but so far, there has been no precedent for well-cooked birds to transmit bird flu to humans.
Even if this year's bird flu epidemic survives the summer heat, the protein shell of the bird flu virus will quickly degenerate in the face of the temperature of frying and frying, resulting in the death of the virus.
Therefore, both the CDC and the mainland CDC have said that during the bird flu epidemic, chicken can still be safely eaten. Of course, the premise is that the chicken must be cooked before eating.
Just because you can eat chicken doesn't mean humans won't be infected with the bird flu virus at all. In fact, there have been many outbreaks of avian influenza in which human infections have occurred.
Avian influenza, like human influenza, is a disease transmitted through the respiratory tract. Therefore, people infected with avian influenza are usually workers who are in close contact with poultry, such as farmers or slaughterhouses.
However, there is no need to talk about the "bird" color change. Just as toxic substances must reach a certain concentration in order to poison people, a virus must also reach a sufficient concentration if it wants to infect humans.
Everyone must know that drinking raw water will make you sick, but we usually brush our teeth and rinse our mouths directly with raw water, why don't we get sick because of this?
Because, when brushing our teeth and rinsing our mouths, the water just rotates in our mouths, and there is very little raw water swallowed, even if it contains some bacteria and viruses, it is enough to be immediately destroyed by our immune system. However, if we drink raw water directly, the number of bacteria and viruses swallowed will exceed the ability of the immune system to respond, and eventually make us sick.
Therefore, if we see wild birds or poultry in our daily life, there is no need to panic. In a well-ventilated outdoors, even if we encounter birds carrying bird flu viruses, it is almost impossible to be infected.
However, everyone should also be careful not to touch wild birds at will, let alone catch or eat wild birds. People who have to come into close contact with live poultry should do personal protection, and places where live poultry are concentrated should also be regularly sanitize.
However, foodies will definitely worry that if they watch the World Cup and accidentally eat a dozen or twenty chicken paws in one go, will they ingest a lot of viruses?
It is said that China imports a lot of chicken from the United States, especially chicken feet. Looking at the world, only China consumes chicken feet in large quantities, and there are many people who can eat them. Therefore, many countries export chicken feet to China. In 2019, before the pandemic, China imported almost 160,000 tons of chicken feet in just ten months. In 2021, imported frozen chicken feet reached 674,000 tons.
So, can you still eat imported chicken feet?
First, the United States and continents are not the only ones in the world. Since around 2017, the largest source of poultry imports from China has become Brazil. In 2017, more than 80% of poultry meat came from Brazil, followed by Argentina with about 11%.
In 2012, the proportion of poultry meat imported from the United States increased slightly, to about 30%. Brazil remains the largest household, accounting for about 44%. Imports from Russia and Thailand rose by 7% and 6% respectively. In addition, the mainland's imported chicken market is open to more countries, including Eastern European countries such as Belarus, Ukraine and Poland.
Therefore, even if there is an outbreak of bird flu in the United States, it will not delay the mainland from continuing to import chicken.
After the bird flu outbreak in the United States, Chinese customs responded extremely quickly, and if there was an outbreak in any state in the United States, the entire state of chicken would be returned.
The last outbreak of bird flu in the United States was in December 2014. The mainland found that the sea seemed uncontrollable, so in January 2015 it immediately banned the import of poultry and poultry products from the United States, both directly and indirectly.
With the customs as the door god, everyone can drink beer and nibble on chicken feet with confidence!