118 Thailand finally stopped: For an overview of cases in both Thailand and Vietnam, see “Avian Influenza A (H5N1),”
122 release the findings: WHO, “Avian Influenza A (H5N1)—Update 14: Two Additional Human Cases of H5N1 Infection Laboratory Confirmed in Vietnam, Investigation of a Family Cluster,” Feb. 1, 2004.
123 “the ethics of researchers”: “Thaksin Challenges WHO Statement,”
123 “temperatures were running high”: Nguyen Tran Hien, Jeremy Farrar, and Peter Horby, “Person-to-Person Transmission of Influenza A (H5N1),”
125 “think of it like a war”: Notes of WHO teleconference, Feb. 7, 2004.
125 widespread in ducks: Y. Guan et al., “H5N1 Influenza: A Protean Pandemic Threat,”
125 permanent foothold in Asian poultry: K. S. Li et al., “Genesis of a Highly Pathogenic and Potentially Pandemic H5N1 Influenza Virus in Eastern Asia,”
126 “no link could be established”: Internal WHO report, undated.
126 “almost certainly H2H transmission”: E-mail, Nov. 6, 2004.
127 more of the story: The cluster is also described in Kumnuan Ungchusak et al., “Probable Person-to-Person Transmission of Influenza A (H5N1),”
130 Thailand’s health ministry announced: “Avian Influenza Infection of Patients in Kamphaeng Phet,” press release, Ministry of Health, Thailand, Sept. 28, 2004.
130 WHO released a statement: WHO, “Avian Influenza—Situation in Thailand,” Sept. 28, 2004.
130 But even as they accepted: Likely cases of human transmission have occurred in at least a half-dozen countries, also including Indonesia, Cambodia, Pakistan, and China. On the last, for example, see Hua Wang et al., “Probable Limited Person-to-Person Transmission of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A (H5N1) Virus in China,”
Chapter Five: Livestock Revolution
This chapter draws on interviews with dozens of villagers in Suphan Buri Province.
133 another continent in the 1950s: Interview with local historian Samreong Reaungrit.
134 chicken made its debut: For the history of the chicken industry in Thailand, see Christopher L. Delgado, Clare A. Narrod, and Marites M. Tiongco,
134 doubled the average amount of chicken: Nipon Poapongsakorn et al., “Annex VIII: Livestock Industrialization, Trade and Social-Health-Environment Issues for the Thai Poultry, Dairy, and Swine Sector,” May 2002, included in Delgado and Narrod,
134 an even cheaper source of protein: Ibid.
135 soaring demand for eggs: Thailand’s egg consumption doubled in a decade. Delgado, Narrod, and Tiongco,
137 the first to fall sick: Jared Diamond,
137 afflicting their livestock: Ibid., 196-97.
137 evolved from animal pathogens: Jared Diamond, “Evolution, Consequences and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication,”
137 about 60 percent also cause disease in animals: S. Cleaveland, M. K. Laurenson, and L. H. Taylor, “Diseases of Humans and Their Domestic Mammals: Pathogen Characteristics, Host Range and Risk of Emergence,”
137 These microbes can hopscotch: Willam B. Karesh and Robert A. Cook, “The Human-Animal Link,”
137 An even higher proportion: L. H. Taylor, S. M. Latham, and M. E. Wool-house, “Risk Factors for Human Disease Emergence,”
137 “Similar to the time”: “Animal Health at the Crossroads: Preventing, Detecting, and Diagnosing Animal Diseases” (Washington: National Academy of Sciences, 2005), 27.
137 a mystery illness erupted: For an account, see Keith B. Richburg, “Malaysia Slow to Act on Virus,”
138 opening of trade routes: See, for example, William H. McNeill,
138 “Pharoah’s rats”: Wu Lien-Teh et al.,
138 plague erupted in southern China: For a good account of the Yunnan outbreak and the subsequent spread of the disease, see Carol Benedict,
139 it ravaged Hong Kong: For accounts, see Benedict,
139 “Little wonder, then”: Marriott,
139 reported that patients suffered: James Cantlie, “The First Recorded Appearance of the Modern Influenza Epidemic,”
140 “epicenter” of all influenza viruses: Kennedy F. Shortridge and C. H. Stuart-Harris, “An Influenza Epicentre?”
