(Dec 21) Hong Kong raised its bird flu alert level to “serious” as workers began culling 17,000 chickens at a wholesale poultry market after three birds tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus. Since 2003, it has infected 573 people around the world, killing 336. However, the current strain of H5N1 is highly pathogenic, kills most species of birds and up to 60 percent of the people it infects. People do not have immunity to the H5N1 virus and researchers worry it could mutate in humans into a form that would spread around the world and kill millions of people. The virus can kill birds and humans in a matter of days but can survive far longer durations in a moist, cool environment. The Hong Kong government also suspended imports of live chickens from mainland China and the trading of live chickens for 21 days to ensure that the virus runs through its full lifecycle. (Source)
(Dec 21) Last month, a group of scientists revealed that they have genetically tweaked version of the H5N1 bird flu strain which is far more infectious and could pass easily between millions of people at a time. A U.S. scientific advisory board Tuesday asked two scientific journals, Nature and Science, to leave out data from these research studies, fearing it could be used as a potential weapon. (Source)
(Dec 12) The mysterious epidemic that has claimed hundreds of crows in Jharkhand, India has now spread to Hazaribagh, with 350-odd scavengers perishing in Vishnugarh and Katkamsandi over the weekend, triggering panic among residents who have been advised by experts not to touch the carcasses. More than 1,000 crows have died in Jamshedpur alone in the past one and a half months, besides a number of deaths in Ghatshila and Giridih. In a report sent to the Union agriculture ministry on Thursday, the Indian Veterinary Research Institute’s (IVRI) Bhopal centre had held the avian influenza virus, H5N1, responsible for the crow deaths in Jharkhand. (Source)
END TIMES TRUTH
Two things we can be sure of: first, all things happen in a state of progression. Nothing happens quickly. It happens over time. Second, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9. Just as plagues were used for judgments in ancient times, Yahweh’s patience has worn thin. Her plagues are descending upon this planet, and death shall reign as it has never reigned before. Look around you – how many are seeking the Truth? What one sows one shall also reap.
Mass Animal Deaths (Dec 2011)
Disease Outbreaks and Threats
Man-made flu virus with potential to wipe out many millions is created in research lab
