I have read nothing in that report, or elsewhere, which contradicts my statement that Avian Flu may be transmissible from chickens to humans but only via the respiratory route - hence my sound advice to avianphiles just to give up kissing for a while. My advice on eating cooked chicken seems well reasoned if NORMAL hygiene procedures are follow (esp hand-washing). BUT, the flu virus is notorious for antigenic shift and gene combinations with other species, so no one can be sure of how emerging strains will behave. It may be that a chicken infected with avian flu may infect (via respiratory route) a human or other species (pigs are notorious) and genes from both will combine; the infected species may then spread the NEW virus to (other) humans by any possible route and then we are in trouble BIG TIME.
