The virus of flu type A can infect not only people but also some kinds of animals and even birds. Virus of flu which can infect birds is called “the bird flu”. All the kinds of birds can suffer from the bird flu. But some birds are less susceptible to it. As usual as for the wild birds it can last without any symptoms and it doesn’t cause epidemics. As for the domestic birds the bird flu is extremely dangerous for them and the ill birds can even die.
The domestic birds can have different symptoms of flu. They can have no symptoms, they can lay less eggs or have some problems with respiratory system, or just die immediately after the infecting with virus without having any symptoms. The only way of prevention spreading of the bird flu is the immediate killing of the infected birds. There are some vaccines to prevent the bird flu, but their usage is not economically reasonable.
Actually the meat of the infected bird is not dangerous for people if it’s properly cooked. After the good freezing, boiling or frying the virus of flu usually dies.
But still the infecting of people with bird flu is possible. It happens seldom though the cases of infecting people with bird flu were in 1997-1999 and 2003-2004. In 2004 was the most serious case of suffering people from the bird flu. It says about mutation of the virus. Actually it infects children more often.
As usual infecting can most probably happen during the contact with an ill bird or while eating the infected meat. But the real reason of infecting person with the bird flu is still not revealed.
Patients ill with the bird flu can have traditional flu symptoms (high temperature, shiver, headache, pain in legs and arms etc.), suffer from eye infection. Though virus is dangerous for it can lead to serious complications like pneumonia, heart and kidney problems.
Sometimes animals can suffer from the bird flu too (like horses, pigs, whales, seals, minks and others). The cases of pigs suffering with the bird flu happened in 1970, 1996, 2004. As pigs can suffer from both the bird flu and the man’s flu, the barrier between two viruses can be destroyed. And it can be more dangerous for people, because they become more susceptible to it.
The problem of the bird flu is rather serious because the virus of flu mutates very quickly and becomes more and more dangerous for people. At the same time this problem is not well studied by scientists and needs more investigation. Besides the virus of the bird flu is more dangerous than the common flu due to its steadiness to the different environmental conditions (for example: it can live in the body of dead birds even for a year).
