ISSN: 1080-6059
Volume 13, Number 11–November 2007
Book Review
Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching
Michael Greger
Lantern Books, Brooklyn, New York, USA, 2006
ISBN: 159056081
Pages: 465; Price: US $30.00
Suggested citation for this article
Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching, by Michael Greger, MD, is written for a nonprofessional audience. A professional audience would quickly put it aside for more factually correct sources of information.
Dr. Greger is the director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. Much of the book is devoted to criticism of the commercial farming of birds and other animals; agricultural practices are blamed for the threat of pandemic influenza. He neglects the fact that most of the cases of human infection with influenza A (H5N1) have come from family farms in Asia, rather than the large commercial ventures.
The science relating to the current subtype H6N1 is changing so rapidly that any book is out-of-date by the time it is published. The book contains 90 pages of references, mostly from the popular press. Few current peer-reviewed sources are cited.
The need for authoritative information on avian influenza (H5N1) for the lay public is great, but unfortunately, this book does not meet that need. It focuses heavily on doomsday scenarios and offers little in terms of practical advice to the public. For those interested in the book, it can be found online at www.birdflubook.com.
David J. Sencer* 
*Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Suggested Citation for this Article
Sencer DJ. Bird flu: a virus of our own hatching [book review]. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2007 Nov [date cited]. Available from http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/13/11/1802B.htm
Please use the form below to submit correspondence to the authors or contact them at the following address:
David J. Sencer, 1097 Mason Woods Dr, Atlanta, GA 30329, USA; email: djud@mindspring.com
Please contact the EID Editors at eideditor@cdc.gov
The opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
This page posted October 29, 2007
This page last reviewed October 30, 2007
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