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  Today Online 17 Dec 05
Free from bird flu, but keep your guard up
Reply from AVA

Today Online 12 Dec 05
Noisy birds roosting in trees: a danger?
Letter from Lim Boon Hee

If not for the danger of bird flu, the cacophony of birds chirping madly in the trees at the carpark outside Somerset MRT station would have been considered an avian-lover's paradise.

However the congregation of birds coming to roost for the night is too close to the human urban masses for comfort. The bird droppings falling on cars and unsuspecting crowds may harbour the H5N1 virus (not to mention bird-related diseases such as psittacosis).

In view of animal-related viruses jumping the species barrier from animal to man, such unholy intimacy of men and nature can no longer be viewed so benignly This is also partly due to the fact that most people infected with bird flu are those who have come in close contact with the sick birds.


Today Online 13 Dec 05
Birds have right to poo too
Letter from Tan Chek Wee

WHEN I read the letter, "Noisy birds roosting in trees--a danger?" (Dec 12), my reaction was: "Oh no, not another reason for more killing!"

But then I still wish that perhaps if the authority does respond, the trees may be moved to a place where both trees and birds are free from the dangers of humans, whose lives are now increasingly obsessed with and possessed by fear.

I hope we can utilise our intelligence to our fullest and imbibe it with some compassion to find a win-win solution to this complaint of "cacophony and droppings", for birds too have "a right to live and to defecate".

Today Online 17 Dec 05
Free from bird flu, but keep your guard up
Reply from AVA

I REFER to Mr Lim Boon Hee's letter "Noisy birds roosting in trees — a danger?" (Dec 12). . Singapore is free from bird flu. The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) has an ongoing surveillance programme to check for bird flu in wild birds.

To date, no bird with the virus has been found. . As the birds in Singapore are free from bird flu, it is unlikely that the bird droppings harbour the bird flu virus.

Nevertheless, the public is advised to adopt hygiene practices such as avoiding direct contact with the droppings and washing their hands thoroughly after removing faecal matter.

ELAINE PONG
Senior manager, corporate communications
For the Chief Executive Officer
Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority Ministry of National Development
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Related articles on Global issues: Bird Flu
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