Creationists Puzzled by Gravity, Entropy, and Evolution

...along with avian flu infections of humans, of course.

In a recent release by the State Department of a World Health Organization report on avian flu:

Human Bird Flu Cases Present Puzzling Patterns

New U.N. fact sheet details observations, as human cases mount

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a new fact sheet on avian influenza, the first since the disease moved out of Asia into Europe.

The document summarizes the course of bird flu in its two-year spread across Eurasia. In regard to the human cases that have appeared in six nations, the fact sheet points out some puzzling unknown factors. Human cases of disease have not appeared in commercial poultry enterprises or culling operations, as might be expected. Instead, the majority of cases have stricken previously healthy children and young adults exposed to small flocks kept in domestic settings...

Now what does the fact sheet say?

Avian influenza is an infectious disease of birds caused by type A strains of the influenza virus. The disease occurs worldwide. While all birds are thought to be susceptible to infection with avian influenza viruses, many wild bird species carry these viruses with no apparent signs of harm.

Other bird species, including domestic poultry, develop disease when infected with avian influenza viruses. In poultry, the viruses cause two distinctly different forms of disease – one common and mild, the other rare and highly lethal. In the mild form, signs of illness may be expressed only as ruffled feathers, reduced egg production, or mild effects on the respiratory system. Outbreaks can be so mild they escape detection unless regular testing for viruses is in place.

In contrast, the second and far less common highly pathogenic form is difficult to miss. First identified in Italy in 1878, highly pathogenic avian influenza is characterized by sudden onset of severe disease, rapid contagion, and a mortality rate that can approach 100% within 48 hours. In this form of the disease, the virus not only affects the respiratory tract, as in the mild form, but also invades multiple organs and tissues. The resulting massive internal haemorrhaging has earned it the lay name of “chicken Ebola”.

All 16 HA (haemagluttinin) and 9 NA (neuraminidase) subtypes of influenza viruses are known to infect wild waterfowl, thus providing an extensive reservoir of influenza viruses perpetually circulating in bird populations. In wild birds, routine testing will nearly always find some influenza viruses. The vast majority of these viruses cause no harm.

To date, all outbreaks of the highly pathogenic form of avian influenza have been caused by viruses of the H5 and H7 subtypes. Highly pathogenic viruses possess a tell-tale genetic “trade mark” or signature – a distinctive set of basic amino acids in the cleavage site of the HA – that distinguishes them from all other avian influenza viruses and is associated with their exceptional virulence.

Not all virus strains of the H5 and H7 subtypes are highly pathogenic, but most are thought to have the potential to become so. Recent research has shown that H5 and H7 viruses of low pathogenicity can, after circulation for sometimes short periods in a poultry population, mutate into highly pathogenic viruses. Considerable circumstantial evidence has long suggested that wild waterfowl introduce avian influenza viruses, in their low pathogenic form, to poultry flocks, but do not carry or directly spread highly pathogenic viruses. This role may, however, have changed very recently: at least some species of migratory waterfowl are now thought to be carrying the H5N1 virus in its highly pathogenic form and introducing it to new geographical areas located along their flight routes...

There you have it. A word that the Disney scrubbed Bu$hCo TheoCon State Department appointees can't read, any more than Count Dracula can see his reflection in the mirror.

Recent research has shown that H5 and H7 viruses of low pathogenicity can, after circulation for sometimes short periods in a poultry population, mutate into highly pathogenic viruses.

Mutate. That's a secular science word for a random biological genetic change. It drives the evolutionary process. When a mutation gives a selection advantage, it propagates. Viral mutations that are highly pathogenic are initially favorable- they make a lot of virus really quickly- but are selected out of the population rapidly because killing the host doesn't favor transmission.

That's what evolution is all about.

Viruses propagate naturally in animal vectors, and the best adjusted ones, like the influenza virus among waterfowl, don't really bother the host all that much. It's natural that small domestic populations of birds sharing the same territory with the waterfowl encounter their viruses all the time. So do the small farmers who live with these animals, unlike industrial farms. Most of the time the disease isn't serious.

When it is mostly it doesn't spread far.

This is why new flu vaccines are required every year: the virus has a hypervariable genome.

This isn't puzzling at all unless you've got a worldview no deeper than a televison screen showing Pat Robertson or his Dear Leader's smiling face.