China culls more than 40 tons of poultry daily
China has reported 33 cases of H7N9, including nine fatalities, in Shanghai municipality and the provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang, according to the country’s National Health and Family Planning Commission.
China shut down poultry markets in Shanghai on April 5 and began culling tens of thousands of birds as a precaution to stop the spread of a new, deadly strain of avian flu.
“A top Chinese biology lab has ascribed the H7N9 avian influenza to genetic reassortment of wild birds from east Asia and chickens from east China,” said a report.
- “A virus carried by wild birds from the Republic of Korea and other east Asian regions mingled with the avian influenza virus carried by ducks and chickens in the Yangtze River Delta during migration,” researchers said.
Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
“Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a serious problem threatening the health of honey bees and the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the United States. ” USDA said.
Image credit: Stephen Ausmus/USDA/ARS
- Bee pollination adds more than $15 billion in increased crop value in the U.S. each year.
- The number of managed honey bee colonies has dropped from more than 5 million in the 1940s to less than 2.5 million today.
- The almond industry in California requires the service of 1.4 million colonies of honey bees.
- Losses from the winter of 2006-2011 averaged about 33 percent each year, with a third of all losses attributed to CCD by beekeepers.
- Total losses of managed honey bee colonies were 21.9 percent nationwide for the 2011/2012 winter, according to the annual survey conducted by the USDA.
- Neonicotinoids are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine.
- The European Food Safety Authority recently stated that neonicotinoids pose an unacceptably high risk to bees.
- The American Bird Conservancy recently published a review of 200 studies on neonicotinoids and called for a ban on neonicotinoid use as seed treatments due to toxicity to birds, aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.
- A coalition of beekeepers, conservation, food campaigners and sustainable agriculture advocates sued EPA last month on grounds that the agency has failed to protect the bees.
- “The lawsuit accuses the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of failing to protect the insects – which pollinate three-quarters of all food crops – from nerve agents that it says should be suspended from use. Neonicotinoids, the world’s most widely used insecticides, are also facing the prospect of suspension in the European Union, after the health commissioner pledged to press on with the proposed ban despite opposition from the UK and Germany.”
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DISASTER CALENDAR – April 10, 2013 —
SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,067 Days Left
Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.
- SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,067 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human History
- The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …
GLOBAL WARNINGS
- WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
- WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
- Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started
- United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun
Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background
Fire Earth 