THE START OF SOMETHING BIG?

It's only preliminary right now, but indications are that the deadly SARS virus sweeping the globe and crashing economies started with people eating and handling "wild game" - specifically chickens, ducks, pigeons and owls. Again, it's just preliminary, yes. But if this is confirmed as a source, it will be a big wake-up call to health officials as well as those who maintain humans are "naturally" predisposed to eating wild animals. In a not-quite-unrelated story, fears about CJD spreading to humans from animals are on the rise again as three more hunters have died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, two of them from the same town. New Scientist mentions that "the surveillance system in the US is so woefully inadequate that even if these fears are unfounded, it is impossible for researchers to rule out the possibility." The CDC will not investigate, since the men are from supposedly CWD-free states - you know, the kind that all the other states were until CWD was found there. This is a disturbing development, to say the least. What I fear is that it is only preliminary.