meehawl

all that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned

McNugget Blowback

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Men in white rubber suits and gas masks chasing down chickens in rural villages… Chickens sold and slaughtered in live markets… Wild birds flying across the sky… These are the typical images broadcast by the media in its coverage of the bird flu epidemic. Rare are photos of the booming transnational poultry industry. There are no shots of its factory farms hit by the virus, and no images of its overcrowded trucks transporting live chickens or its feed mills converting “poultry byproducts” into chicken feed. The selection of images sends a clear message: bird flu is a problem of wild birds and backwards poultry practices, not modern industry.

The main weakness in the migratory bird theory is that the geographical spread of the disease does not match with migratory routes and seasons. “No species migrates from Qinghai, China, west to Eastern Europe,” says BirdLife’s Dr Richard Thomas. “When plotted, the pattern of outbreaks follows major road and rail routes, not flyways.

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