When did the Bird Flu begin? What or Who is responsible?

To be honest, i'm rather suspicious as to how the Bird Flu really broke out. There was just suddenly all this talk about it a while ago, then it went away.. and its starting to come back again now.

And birds.. they seem to be THE BEST possible carrier for such a deadly virus. Unlike rats that caused the plague etc, birds can fly over water so it can become a truly world-wide pandemic, alot easier.

The US government has spent billions on biological warfare research, as many other nations have too, no doubt.

But where did it all come from?

Apparently, the early 20th century was the first time it was identified (in Italy).

It's not a new disease by any means....and we can't really sensibly argue that the government was able at that point to manipulate a virus in such a manner to make it weaponable (I might have just made up a word there. Hmm).

Wiki page

Med India says this about it:

Fowl plague was described in 1878 as a serious disease of chickens in Italy. It was determined in 1955 that fowl plague (FP) virus is actually one of the influenza viruses. All influenza viruses affecting domestic animals (equine, swine, avian) belong to Type A, and Type A influenza virus is the most common type producing serious epidemics in humans. Types B and C do not affect domestic animals.

Really informative links here, too.

Hth