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FROM IIM-AHMEDABAD TO HAPPINESS
- The last bird flu outbreak in Hong Kong occurred in 1997, when
the disease killed six people, prompting the government to slaughter the entire poultry population of about 1.5 million birds.
The deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been detected on a large commercial chicken farm in Nigeria. All 46,000 birds on the Nigerian farm have been killed and their bodies disposed of, and Nigerian authorities have banned the movement of birds and people from the farm.
- Iraqi health authorities have ordered mass bird slaughters.
- Indonesia to launch mass bird flu slaughter.
Turkey's fast-moving outbreak of bird flu prompted villagers across the border in Georgia to slaughter chickens, geese and ducks en masse. Turkey's government ordered more than
300,000 fowl destroyed as a precaution. - In Russia, nationalist lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky urged men
to grab rifles and shoot migratory birds to keep the virus at bay.
And this news item:
WASHINGTON, DC - As experts issue increasingly dire warnings of an avian flu epidemic, President Bush signed an executive order Tuesday authorizing the mass slaughter of “all bald eagles found anywhere within our borders.” “As president, my first duty is to protect the American people, whether the threat is terrorists or deadly, fast-mutating bird viruses,” said Bush, standing on the lawn of the National Mall before a specially built pyre stacked with recently killed bald eagles. “This proactive initiative will rid our nation of this potentially disease-ridden winged animal.” Bush added: "I want these birds rounded up, tied down, and their throats slit.” Executive Order 1342A, which calls for the annihilation of the bald eagle, specifies that each carcass shall be wrapped in a single American flag, doused with gasoline, and burned.
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