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Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching

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Dr. Greger succeeds where virtually everyone else misses the mark on avian influenza and the coming pandemic -- bringing together the historical, medical, ecological, agricultural, viral, and economic factors that have contributed to the "hatching" of this new disease threat. The human choices and decisions that are evident at every turn in the history of H5N1 call to mind the Titanic: 1500 people drowned not solely because the ship hit an iceberg, but because of decisions about the design of the decks and the underwater compartments, reflecting priorities that had consequences for people's lives. The iceberg exposed those decisions for historic reflection. Blaming disasters on "nature" gets us off the hook every time.

The same attitude prevails in the official rhetoric about avian viruses and the pandemic that lies "dead ahead." Virtually all of the official emergency preparedness materials and health department websites echo the mantra that because influenza viruses are natural (true), therefore H5N1 is natural(not entirely) and consequently, this particular pandemic is also "natural" (not so).

With eloquence and precision, Dr. Greger pulls apart and then weaves together the mix of natural and manmade threads that comprise the H5N1 tapestry. Citing data from hundreds of scientific and lay sources within multiple disciplines, he overcomes the compartmentalization that characterizes almost all other approaches to analyzing the origins and characteristics of the virus itself, without diluting the rigor of scientific analysis.

Dr Greger examines the totality of variables that engender and accelerate ongoing genetic mutations within H5N1. He takes us step by step through the process whereby a harmless waterborne duck virus has become a deadly airborne chicken killer that now threatens all of humanity. The result is to allow us finally to understand why we are staring down the barrel of this pandemic gun and that we ourselves (well, some of us....) designed and loaded it.

It is time to abandon the fiction that the emergence of such an unprecedented disease threat to humanity is entirely a "natural" phenomenon just doing its evolutionary "thing." One can only hope that this book will finally enable us to stop talking about the inevitable pandemic as if it has nothing to do with the drastic changes in food production methods worldwide over the last 15-20 years.

The book is brilliantly organized, meticulously documented, and provides absolutely essential background and depth for anyone who wants to know more than the superficial rhetoric currently available to the public. The scientific community would be well advised to read this book, as well, in order to acquire a more interdisciplinary and contextual perspective appropriate for the era of globalization.

Although "Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching" is harrowing in its implications, it is nonetheless hopeful. As Dr. Greger points out, only when we grasp the extent to which our factory farming methods provide the "host density" without which H5N1 would not be threatening us, will we be capable of considering our options for the post-pandemic future. In the meantime, we are all going to pay the price for the choices that have been made.

Much of what is said in this book could be blown off as hype if you are one who trusts mainstream news sources. Dr Greger must be aware of this, as he cites every single source that his information comes from with painstaking detail. The final 1/3 of this book contains all of the references, mainly from scientists and government who probably have some idea of what they are talking about.

Ominously, I received a guide from the government on how to prepare for a flu pandemic as I read this book. The implications of what could happen to our civilization should the bird flu virus mutate from poultry to humans and then from human to human is quite frightening. Dr Greger shows in this book how that is not only possible but even likely due to the way modern agriculture keeps birds in intensively overcrowded conditions where viruses are free to mutate and become more effective at spreading.

As a spiritual person I believe that the way we have turned food animals into genetically modified Frankenstein creatures who live lives of intense confinement, torture and abuse is asking for karmic retribution. Dr Greger perhaps does not share this belief, but he lays the facts and science of pandemics out in a way that is hard for even the most scientifically-minded atheist to refute. We are on the brink of a apocalyptic catastrophe and what is being done to avert it is next to nothing. I hope this book will wake some people up and maybe we can rethink our values in time to save ourselves from disaster.

BIRD FLU: A VIRUS OF OUR OWN HATCHING opens not with H5N1, the modern day "bird flu virus" which has the potential to mutate into the deadliest pandemic that the world has ever seen, but with H1N1, the influenza virus responsible for the 1918 flu pandemic. In just two short years, an estimated 50 to 100 million people perished as World War I raged on.

As described by author Michael Greger, MD, in chilling detail:

"What started for millions around the globe as muscle aches and a fever ended days later with many victims bleeding from their nostrils, ears, and eye sockets. Some bled inside their eyes; some bled around them. They vomited blood and coughed it up. Purple blood blisters appeared on their skin. [...] [The Chief of the Medical Services, Major Walter V. Brem] wrote that `often blood was seen to gush from a patient's nose and mouth.' In some cases, blood reportedly spurted with such force as to squirt several feet. `When pneumonia appeared,' Major Brem recounted, `the patients often spat quantities of almost pure blood.' They were bleeding into their lungs."

Yet, H1N1 had a "low" (relatively speaking) mortality rate of 2.5% to 5%. Compare that to H5N1, which thus far has killed 55% of those infected - and one must wonder why the possibility of bird flu pandemic is confined to occasional media reports that are quickly dwarfed by the latest Hollywood gossip. Is bird flu-inspired panic just another example of media sensationalism?

Not so, argues Greger. From 1918 he transitions seamlessly to the research laboratories of today. Greger, who is Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at The Humane Society of the United States and "an internationally recognized lecturer on public health issues", launches into Viral Biology 101, explaining in layman's terms how a virus reproduces, spreads, mutates, and interacts with its host. Though he's dealing with (arguably) dry subject matter, Greger manages to keep the discussion engaging via the liberal use of colorful analogies and sharp, witty prose. This isn't your high school bio textbook.

Once a basic understanding of viruses has been established, Dr. Greger addresses modern animal agriculture, specifically, how it's especially conducive to the transmission and evolution of avian influenza. Animals, particularly "broiler" (meat) and "laying" (egg) hens, are packed into windowless sheds by the thousands; by the time they're fully grown just 45 days later (in the case of broiler hens), they don't even have enough space to spread their wings or turn around. Chickens are selectively bred for fast growth or maximum egg production - much to the detriment of their immune systems. Rather than improve the birds' ability to stave off disease (which would come at the expense of their "energy efficiency"), large-scale corporate "factory farmers" opt to pump their livestock full of antibiotics, thus contributing to bacterial resistance in humans. Add to this mix the fact that chickens literally spend their short lives wallowing in their own feces (and sometimes even that of previously butchered flocks), and you've got the perfect environment for a virus such as H5N1 to thrive.

And thrive it has. The billions of chickens, turkeys, and pigs raised and slaughtered for food annually act like "petri dishes" in which avian influence can mingle, swapping genetic material in order to mutate, gradually evolving into a strain more lethal and infectious to humans. Their compromised immune systems and unsanitary and stressful living conditions only facilitate this process. Despite numerous attempts at eradicating the virus - for example, by wiping out entire flocks of chickens, to the tune of millions of birds at a time - H5N1 (along with additional viral strains) can still be found on many farms, throughout the world.

While some critics - particularly those in the animal agriculture industry - dismiss this as scare mongering, Greger argues his points convincingly, and offers a wealth of evidence to support his claims. Indeed, his "Reference" section spans an impressive 90 pages! Throughout the text, he quotes a myriad of experts in the field, including Robert Webster, Kennedy F. Shortridge, and Michael Osterholm, as well as health professionals from the USDA, CDC, FAO, and WHO. Even "food scientists" admit - in the comfort and familiarity of their own trade journals, mind you - that the industry is flirting with disaster. The general - nay, unanimous - consensus seems to be "when, not if."

A pandemic is inevitable, that is, unless we swiftly and dramatically move away from factory farming methods towards less intense animal agriculture methods, such as free range farming. Additionally, this must be preceded by a temporary global moratorium on meat and egg production, in order to eradicate the bird flu virus(es) already present in farm animals worldwide. None of which is bloody likely to happen.

Thus, Greger urges readers to take precautions before a pandemic hits. He recommends obtaining and filling a prescription for Tamiflu (the more effective of two antivirals used to treat avian influenza), as well as stocking up on necessary groceries and such - TODAY. Greger also advises readers on how to purify water with bleach, and concoct cheap, homemade hand sanitizer. Oh, and do make sure you have plenty of liquor, cigarettes and ammo on hand, just in case the world reverts to the barter system! Though Greger reiterates and even elaborates upon government-issued pandemic guidelines in this last section, I didn't exactly walk away with a sense of empowerment. The rest of BIRD FLU was so horrifying that stocking up on canned veggies and medical masks won't do much to ease my troubled mind.

Whether you're a vegan, a carnivore, an average Jane, a state Senator, an animal welfarist, or a hunter, BIRD FLU is one book you can't afford to ignore. For too long, we've been playing chicken with our food supply - and nature may soon see fit to reward our taste for cheap meat with a global pandemic.

H5N1. Pandemic or fizzle? Will this version of Avian Flu be a killer as bad as the great Pandemic Flu of 1918 (also an avian flu)? Or worse? Or a fizzle like Swine Flu in President Gerald Ford's administration? If it is akin to the first two choices, Americans will be faced with one of the worst health threats in its history.

Michael Greger's book, "Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching," explores H5N1 (the current strain of the virus that has generated so much concern)--from its origins, to its transmission, to its potential lethality, to how we might work to minimize the death and destruction that a pandemic might cause.

He begins by discussing the 1918 pandemic (sometimes referred to as Spanish Flu), from its origins as a relatively mild flu bug to its emergence as a mass killer. This serves as a starting point for considering H5N1. It also allows him to discuss the origins of a number of major diseases. One thing to note: influenza in its various forms began as a bird flu.

A couple basic statistics to orient one. The 1918 pandemic killed about 5% of those exposed to the virus (in an interesting tidbit, Greger notes that we have rediscovered the 1918 virus and, through modern genetic technology, have supplies of it in labs. It is also sobering to note that when the rediscovered 1918 bug was injected into mice, most were dead in a short period of time. So we have a very lethal strain from 1918 to study). Thus far, of the 200+ known victims of H5N1, almost 50% have died. If the H5N1 strain does not lose its killing power (and it may, since some lethal strains become less lethal with time), this suggests a destructive potential that is almost unimaginable.

And, if the author is correct, humans have done this to themselves. Mass chicken farms are havens for the rapid spread of H5N1. Also, the virus has been shown to infect pigs. This is bad news, since pigs can also be infected by human viruses. If bird flu and a human virus interact, pigs might provide the breeding ground for a lethal strain of H5N1 that can be easily transmitted from pigs to people and then from person to person. One plus at the present is that H5N1 does not pass from one human to another easily.

What to do about the threat? First, address how chickens and other commercial birds are raised. The vast farms where they are now raised are seedbeds of mass infection by H5N1. Prevention of the emergence of a virulent virus that can be transmitted from human to human is a priority for the author. He says (page 347): "To reduce the emergence of viruses like H5N1, humanity must shift toward raising poultry in smaller flocks, under less stressful, less crowded, and more hygienic conditions, with outdoor access, no use of human antivirals. . . ." Next, work hard to develop vaccines against the virus. This may be difficult, given that we are not sure of what form the virus will take and the slowness of development of a new vaccine. Third, try to develop larger stockpiles of Tamiflu. If the author is correct, the United States is stunningly slow in this effort. Fourth, as bland as it sounds, wash hands regularly! Engage in some degree of "social distancing," not being around large gatherings of people if the flu strikes. Fifth, prepare at home. Stow away nonperishable items in the event that one must try to ride things out. Several weeks of food and water would be needed. The chapter provides a useful check list of items to store in the event of pandemic.

In the final analysis, this is a sobering book. To the extent that the author's analysis is correct, we ought to be taking action now. Certainly, communities ought to be planning for what happens if the pandemic actually occurs. The same with health care organizations. If 30-40% of workers are ill, there will be a breakdown in services all over, and there has to be some planning for such an eventuality. This book probably should be widely read. While, sometimes, I suspect that it might be a little on the "over the top," pessimistic side, I also believe that we can't just sit back and say, "It'll be a fizzle and I don't need to worry." "Don't worry, be happy" is not good preparation for what could be a deadly pandemic.

Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching by Michael Greger, MD is one of the best-researched and documented books on the coming pandemic published to date. It is clearly written and in a form that is accessible for the non-scientist. Dr. Gieger has the admirable ability to make the complex medical and scientific minutiae understandable. This text provides the reader with an excellent background on the current situation and how we arrived here. The descriptions of the 1918 pandemic in this text and the parallels between that devastating virus and the H5N1 virus currently circulating worldwide are particularly disturbing. This book is a must read for those wanting to get a grasp of the risk we face from the coming pandemic. It is well written and highly informative. I recommend it to anyone interested in becoming better informed about this threat to humankind.

Grattan Woodson, MD, FACP
Author of The Bird Flu Preparedness Planner and The Bird Flu Manual

I didn't want to read this book. Maybe you don't either. But you must. And when you do, you'll find that the author has made it easy, and even entertaining, for you to learn everything you never wanted to know about bird flu.

Michael Greger writes in an engaging and accessible style that will keep you turning pages as he guides you through the history of zoonotic (animal-based) diseases and explains how contemporary factory farming and meat-packing practices not only make the emergence of new diseases more likely but also place consumers at risk of food poisoning by everyday microorganisms like E. Coli and Salmonella. Despite his somber subject matter, Greger is upbeat, giving us the bad news in a way that energizes us to do something about it.

It can happen here. It has happened here. The 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more Americans than World War II was a bird flu. The next pandemic will be too. We all need to know what we might be able to do to prevent or mitigate that pandemic. You need to what to do to protect yourself and your loved ones when the pandemic comes. Read this book now and make sure that the public policy makers who are supposed to be looking out for you read it too.

Watching a pandemic unfold and take shape before your eyes is like watching paint dry. It is an agonizing process, slow and painful. But at the end, the product is there for all to see.

This is the book to read while watching the paint dry. Like Mike Davis' excellent "The Monster at Our Door," Dr. Greger has done a lot of the heavy lifting for you. He has read countless books, scientific papers, newspaper and magazine articles along with medical/scientific journals and produced the definitive work on avian influenza for the lay reader, decision-maker and concerned citizen.

Along the way, Dr. Greger also shows us the principal underlying cause of the spread of H5N1 (factory farming of chickens and other poultry) and supports his theories with mountains of data, opinion and observation -- much of it directly from the commercial poultry industry he takes to task for putting the world in the shape it is in, bird flu-wise.

Certain passages contain the most relevatory things about food production I have read since Upton Sinclair. It would not take much more to turn me into a vegetarian! I now seek free-range chickens to consume.

Speaking of consume: Once you have read (in order) The Great Influenza (Barry), The Monster at Our Door (Davis) and Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own hatching (Greger), you are ready to dive into the scientific literature yourself. Have a go at all three of these excellent books.

A terrifying and fascinating book about a subject that will impact us all! I found this book both intellectually engaging as well as extremely practical. After reading it, I began to prepare for the likely pandemic ahead by following Dr. Greger's simple and practical suggestions.
Dr. Greger's thorough research, clear writing style and easy-to-follow summaries of extensive scientific research data made a complicated subject both interesting and easy to understand. I even bought a copy for my parents. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Michael Greger's Bird Flu is a triumph of research and analysis. I have been watching this man for over a decade now and have always been in awe not only his writing ability but also his thorough attention to sources. When he says something, you know he can back it up. This book has, I understand, some 4,000 source-citations!

This book marks another important chapter in the struggle of vegans to begin to own issues claimed in other ways. Bird flu is a "health" issue, sure; but it's really a "vegan" issue. The disease is the terrifying product of the domestication of poultry. There's no way around this fact. In a vegan world there would be no H5N1 or any other kind of flu for that matter. This fact is rarely brought out in the mainstream media.

Next, we need a book about manure: not as an agricultural issue or an environmental issue, but a vegan issue. In a vegan world, we would not have nearly the amount of poisonous eutropification in our waterways. The list could go on and on.

Michael Greger's "Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching" is more terrifying than anything a horror writer could imagine, since it depicts a real-life doomsday scenario that seems poised to occur very soon; indeed, the new H5N1 strain of influenza, known as "bird flu," has mutated into a form that can be transmitted by human contact, though not yet on a massive scale, meaning a mass outbreak is more a question of when, not if.

Whereas humans generally contract the disease by ingesting contaminated birds, or being in frequent contact with them, bird flu could blanket the globe when the virus has learned to jump easily from human to human. The author writes: "One day soon, experts fear, with more and more people becoming infected, the virus will finally figure out the combination -- the right combination of mutations to spread not just in one elevator or building, but every building, everywhere, around the globe. One superflu virus. It's happened before, and experts predict it many soon happen again."

Dr. Greger sets the stage for what could come by giving readers a grisly account of a previous avian influenza outbreak: the 1918 flu pandemic, in which 50 to 100 million humans perished. These were gruesome deaths, with blood oozing from eye sockets as the victim's lungs liquefied. Fatalities were so abundant that officials were unable to keep up with burying the corpses. It seems this was merely a sample of what's in store for humanity. "As devastating as the 1918 pandemic was," Dr. Greger writes, "on average the mortality rate was less than 5%. The H5N1 strain of bird flu virus now spreading like a plague across the world currently kills about 50% of its known human victims, on par with some strains of Ebola, making it potentially ten times as deadly as the worst plague in human history." One reason, he explains, is the 1918 virus attacked only the lungs, whereas H5N1 shuts down all the internal organs.

"Bird Flu" eloquently contextualizes the subject, giving us a greater understanding of the virus' origins and our critical role in it. The director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States, Dr. Greger examines bird flu from every angle, creating a meticulously researched work that traces how agricultural, scientific, environmental, political and economic forces have conspired to transform a virus that once threatened only waterfowl into a "highly pathogenic avian influenza" destined to lay waste to large segments of human population.

Among the stops on the author's bird flu reality tour is President George W. Bush's decision in April of 2006 to lift the ban on poultry products from China -- a country well known for its recent outbreaks of avian influenza -- possibly in return for China's agreement to drop its mad cow disease-related ban on U.S. beef imports. (One disease for another, perhaps? No trade deficit there.) Other troubling highlights include the world's inadequate hospital capacity and the inability to create a vaccine, or enough of it, to combat a virus that kills half its victims. In other words, we are as ill-prepared for avian flu today as we were in 1918. And, as Dr. Greger notes, not only is H5N1 worse than what our grandparents faced, but 21st-century transportation means a virus can travel around the planet in 24 hours, not a year.

The book is also a sobering lesson in how many of our human ailments, from the common cold to AIDS, have come from our oppression of animals, especially the practice of breeding and raising them for food. (Dr. Greger notes that human influenza began with the domestication of ducks 4,500 years ago.) Yet authorities refuse to confront the obvious cause of this "virus of our own hatching," preferring instead to devote their resources to containing the outbreak by culling chickens and turkeys and extolling the virtues of well-cooked meat.

Even without the looming pandemic, "Bird Flu" reminds us that eating animal flesh can be deadly. Dr. Greger writes: "For the same reason that people don't get Dutch Elm Disease or ever seem to come down with a really bad case of aphids, food products of animal origin are the source of most cases of food poisoning, with chicken the most common culprit." He notes that although the USDA asserts that proper cooking methods kill all viruses, including bird flu, 76 million Americans still suffer food poisoning every year and an estimated 5,000 die from food-borne illness. The average American kitchen, it seems, has become a biohazard, with pathogenic bacteria found on food-preparation surfaces, sinks and utensils. Dr. Greger quotes flu expert Albert Osterhaus, who concluded that "the gastrointestinal tract of humans is a portal of entry for H5N1."

Although pandemics seem inevitable, Dr. Greger's landmark book suggests an obvious (some might say radical) solution: the elimination of intensive poultry production. Perhaps this is more wishful thinking, given the world's ever-growing appetite for cheap animal protein, but others in the scientific community are also supporting this recommendation, so we may at least see improvements in the way agribusiness operates. "Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching" could herald dramatic changes in farming practices, finally driving decision-makers to critically examine not only how this virus came to be, but how we can curtail it and future diseases lurking within animal factories around the globe.

Mark Hawthorne, author of Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism