Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

The other day I saw a headline about the US banning imports of chicken from British Columbia. Then I saw that Japan has banned imports from all of Canada (I think).

My question has to do with safety. Up till now I understood that the danger was infection of farm workers in contact with live birds, not with the meat itself.

Has scientific opinion changed? Is chicken now a health threat if it comes from infected birds? Does anyone know?

[tzechuk]

I've read the same as you - that it is spread through via, primarily the faeces of the birds and not the bird itself or the cooked meat we eat.

I think people are just being overly cautious.

[Francis-Pax]

Eat Kimchi and everything will be okay.

[Demonicat]

It is spread primarily through contact with the animals or through undercooked eggs and meat. Check out www.brainpop.com for an informative flash cartoon (you'll have to sign up for a 14 day trial- but its a really cool site anyway- and free)

[Manner of Speaking]

I think one of the reasons why countries ban imports of potentially infected livestock is because of the economic impact to domestic farmers, not just for consumer safety. I remember reading a few years ago that when Britain had an outbreak of bovine hoof-and-mouth disease, there was a huge economic impact. Millions of animals were slaughtered even though the disease (apparently? I don't remember) is not a risk to human safety. Many strains of avian flu are harmless to humans, but because it is so contagious, avian flu can be economically devastating to poultry operations.

[plattwaz]

I've always heard the same -- and I *think* I am correct that the only people to date who have become infected were poultry farmers or others who were in close contact with poultry.

However, I was living in Thailand in 2003-2004 when the first outbreak in SE Asia started, and most foreigners avoided eating not only chicken but also eggs and even fish.

The reasoning behind eggs was that often when you buy eggs there are chicken feathers still stuck to the outside, and we were told that even if you couldn't see them, there were feces and urine and whatnot from the chickens all on the shell and it could get in the egg when you cracked it.
(We just paid an extra 30 Baht for better quality eggs, washed them before we cracked the shell, and didn't eat them runny).

The rationale with fish was that they were culling a lot of the chickens into the klongs (local canal system) and dead birds were just appearing in the dozens, half sticking out of a garbage bag, floating down the klong. I don't know what kind of knobheads would eat anything that had spent even a fraction of it's life in one of those klongs (if there is indeed anything alive in there), but for some reason it took a lot of people off of fish as well.

My boyfriend and I simply avoided chicken (with the exception of KFC, cause that's not really chicken....) until we got so sick of pork that we couldn't handle it any longer. At that point we just made sure we cooked it really really really well.

When I try to explain any of this to my family, especially people like my grandmother, they are in hysterics claiming I need to get out of Asia ASAP because I won't be able to get one of the limited numbers of vaccinations that are apparently going to be available.