Yes Jewely, point taken. I guess its a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't, and the game of russian rulet, i guess we,ll just have to play. Everything that this land has protected for the last 100 million years will just be riddled with all sorts of the nastiest creatures like the tasmanian starfish etc its just a "put up with the by-product" so to speak. Can you see where it goes from there? Ok. we just keep on gambling.

EV

NZ imports bananas, Yes, but do they grow them to a large scale. I have no idea but I know the reason why we don't import bananas is due mainly to the risk of disiese.

Actually back to how long a country has been around, Sorry, I should have said post AD.

Probably because droughts and floods bum them out big time aye

Yes you are very right. But, what about the many other businesses that rely on farmers for thier very existance. Why don't they get relief! This is my point here!

why they are required to compete with overseas markets.
Because as a nation we massively over produce.

Finnaly, of cause I can't guarantee everyone will do the right thing. But I can almost guarantee we don't grow our livestock, wash our cloths, urinate and empty our sewage, garbage, educate our kids and process our food all within the confines of our own back yard. Oh, did I mention letting the dogs in to do the cleaning up once we're finnished!

Antiseptic, I have been told that we do not allow pork bone to be imported.

I am not sure of this, & would love a definitive answer on it. However, I only buy pork with the bone in, for that reason.

All pork imported into Australia must be sold cooked and cannot contain any bone.

All fresh pork sold in Australia is from Australian pigs.

Australian pigs are free of Swine Flu.

Only buy ham on the bone, fresh pork or check the country of origin on the label of smallgoods including bacon.

Lets not forget though that the majority of it, no matter what country it comes from, is factory farmed. Intensive agriculture is most likely the cause for this type of virus.

No, no, no PF, its those friggin swines that are the problem!

Its called swine flue for good reasons!

Best that people just play it safe, forget the pork and eat
more tasty yummy,free range lamb. After all, I have a whole lot of them,
nearly ready for market :)

Over the past few days the threat of this virus has seemed less significant, I'll grant you.
I'd also point out that my projections weren't in the catastrophic millions, rather in the tens of thousands, which is on a par with the normal flu. So I wouldn't say I've been scaremongering at all, merely posting a running commentary which has changed along with the bulletins.

The potential for disruption does remain huge - the WHO has stated it takes 4 - 6 months to get a vaccine ready for the public. In the meantime, containment appears to be very difficult, judging by the rapid spread.

Fortunately it seems that whilst the virus is highly contagious, the mortality rate is well below what was feared. Still, mutations are eminently possible, but our fears were never realised with SARS or the bird flu (which had a much higher mortality rate).

It seems a bit stupid to be worrying about eating meat in the context of a flu outbreak. Frankly, given the way we transport and consume meat, even if it was transmissible this way (and I don't think it is) when compared to catching it from a person, the odds seem laughable.

Classic Leigh. I'm amused that you deem it worthy to speculate on what kind of person I am rather than discuss issues - focus man, focus.
The topic is H1N1 flu - got it? (If you think I'm the young, dashing healthy type that's at risk, then to that I say, great).