sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
I am not aware of any study that says Ostrich antibodies in masks are effective. Buyer beware -
Japan Flocks to Ostrich Masks to Help Fight Swine Flu Paranoia
2009-05-31 23:47:32.109 GMT
By Kanoko Matsuyama
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese researcher Yasuhiro
Tsukamoto’s flock of 500 ostriches are being enlisted into the
global fight against swine flu by exploiting Japan’s practice of
wearing masks in public to ward off allergies and colds.
Tsukamoto, 40, a veterinary professor at Kyoto Prefectural
University, was part of a team that investigated the deaths of
birds in 2004, when avian influenza hit farms in western Japan.
The probe into the virus that killed three-fifths of infected
people worldwide spurred him to produce flu-fighting antibodies
from ostriches, which are resistant to infectious diseases.
In July, even before the swine flu outbreak surfaced,
Tsukamoto began selling, for about $2 each, face masks lined
with the ostrich antibodies. The swine flu circling the globe
has heightened the Japanese obsession with wearing face masks,
leading shops to sell out plain white surgical types as well as
patterned varieties, such as those with Mickey Mouse themes.
“Masks have become part of social etiquette as they give
Japanese a sense of security that they and those around them
aren’t spreading diseases,” Masataka Yoshikawa, who tracks
consumer behavior at market researcher Hakuhodo Institute of
Life and Living, said in a telephone interview from Tokyo.
Millions of Masks
Tsukamoto’s Kyoto, western Japan-based Ostrich Pharma Corp.
makes 1.6 kilograms of ostrich egg-derived antibodies per month,
enough to produce 32 million masks. Since July last year, 12
million of the masks have been sold through sites such as
Amazon.co.jp, where they’re priced around 8,400 yen ($88) for 36.
The masks are coated with antibodies against four strains
of flu viruses, including the H5N1 avian variety. The ostrich-
based antibodies envelop viruses that come in contact with the
mask and disable the germs so that a wearer won’t get the flu,
Tsukamoto said his research shows.
“I discovered ostriches have a stronger immune system
against many infectious diseases among birds,” Tsukamoto said
from his farm in Kobe, western Japan.
Tsukamoto’s research comes as drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline
Plc, Sanofi-Aventis SA, and CSL Ltd. prepare to manufacture
swine flu vaccines, and health authorities track the virus to
determine if it mutates into a more serious form during the
Southern Hemisphere’s winter.
Worldwide infections of swine flu, formally known as H1N1,
totaled 15,510 including 99 deaths, or a fatality rate of less
than 1 percent, according to the Geneva-based World Health
Organization. Japan has about 370 cases based on health ministry
figures, the highest number in Asia, where no deaths have been
reported.
Sold Out
Worry over the spread of flu has led face masks to be sold
out in Japanese stores. Masks with prints of Winnie the Pooh
from Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. are priced at 198 yen each on
Kenko.com Inc.’s shopping site, 10 times the cost of Unicharm
Corp.’s plain versions that come in a pack of 30.
Concern about the increasing reach of the virus in Japan,
the world’s second-largest economy, also caused business and
school trips to be cancelled and hotel occupancy to drop. The
western prefectures of Hyogo and Osaka have been hardest hit,
accounting for 95 percent of cases, Ito Mihara, a health
ministry spokesman said on May 27.
A total of 13 conferences have been canceled at the Osaka
International Convention Center after the first locally
transmitted case was found in Japan May 16, Hironobu Matsuo, a
spokesman for the venue, said May 21.
Pandemic Panic
“Virulence is weak and the death rate is low, so it has
little impact on Japan’s economy for now,” Takahide Kiuchi,
chief economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Tokyo, said by phone
on May 27. “We will have to be careful about the economic
impact if the virus mutates in future and the government orders
restrictions on business activities.”
Hiroko Ishiga, 70, waited in a line of about 50 people
mostly wearing masks in front of a branch of Allied Hearts
Holdings Co.’s Lifort drugstore on May 22, hoping to secure
some masks after failing at two shops.
“I have only 20 masks left at home,” said Ishiga. “I
even tried to call my family in Tottori prefecture, but masks
were not available there either.” Tottori is about 120
kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Kobe.
Until the outbreak eases, Yukiko Yamaguchi, a resident in
Kobe and mother of a 10-month-old baby girl, may move to her
parents’ home in Kagawa Prefecture, about 110 kilometers
southwest across the sea from her house.
Polluted Area
“I am even considering evacuating this polluted area,”
said Yamaguchi. “Some might say we are overreacting. I just
don’t want to lose my only daughter.”
“We are telling people to wear masks,” Hyogo Governor
Toshizo Ido told reporters at a May 22 briefing in Kobe. “I
highly thank my citizens for taking care of their own health.”
The flu virus is spread when speaking, sneezing or coughing
via respiratory droplets that normally fall to the ground or the
nearest surface within a meter, said Peter Cordingley, a WHO
spokesman in Manila.
People who aren’t well or who are taking care of someone
who’s infected should wear masks to protect themselves and
others, he said.
“Masks probably serve little purpose in a normal social
setting,” Cordingley said by e-mail. “But WHO recognizes that
the use of masks is a standard response in Japan to outbreaks of
respiratory disease and does not advise against them.”
Not Worth It
Researcher Tsukamoto first tried killing ostriches to
derive antibodies from their blood, an effort that “wasn’t
worth it.”
“The breakthrough was when I managed to make the
antibodies I wanted from their egg yolks,” he said. “The
amount of antibodies that can be made from one ostrich egg
equals that from 10 liters of their blood, or the amount in one
ostrich.”
Antibodies are produced by the immune system in response to
infections and illnesses. Versions have been created in
laboratories to mute overactive immune systems in some diseases.
Tsukamoto’s research had shown antibodies produced from
ostrich eggs to be effective in eradicating avian flu as well as
preventing its spread.
In one study, a batch of chicks with H5N1 avian flu was
injected with an antibody obtained from ostriches, while a
second group of infected birds wasn’t. At the end of five days,
75 percent of chicks in the first group survived with no
symptoms, while all in the second died, according to the study
published in Molecular Medicine Reports in 2008.
Chicks and Filters
Tsukamoto tested the efficacy of antibody-coated filters in
preventing the virus’s spread in another study. He placed
infected chicks in two boxes, one with a filter infused with
antibodies and the other without, and put them in two separate
cages containing healthy birds. All healthy chicks in the cage
with the antibody filter were alive after four days, while only
half survived in the other, according to his study.
Tsukamoto is now testing whether his antibodies are safe
and effective as treatments in the event of a pandemic involving
a virus as deadly as the bird flu.
“I am building my stockpile of antibodies in anticipation
of a life-or-death scenario,” the researcher said after
administering some injections to his birds on the farm. “I
already have enough to make masks for the whole world.” ( This is a remarkable claim since there are 6.7 BILLION people in the world and if they used 1 mask a day for an 8 week wave of flu.....do the math..........Not credible.....Fla1)
http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/73898.php
Japan Flocks to Ostrich Masks to Help Fight Swine Flu Paranoia
2009-05-31 23:47:32.109 GMT
By Kanoko Matsuyama
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese researcher Yasuhiro
Tsukamoto’s flock of 500 ostriches are being enlisted into the
global fight against swine flu by exploiting Japan’s practice of
wearing masks in public to ward off allergies and colds.
Tsukamoto, 40, a veterinary professor at Kyoto Prefectural
University, was part of a team that investigated the deaths of
birds in 2004, when avian influenza hit farms in western Japan.
The probe into the virus that killed three-fifths of infected
people worldwide spurred him to produce flu-fighting antibodies
from ostriches, which are resistant to infectious diseases.
In July, even before the swine flu outbreak surfaced,
Tsukamoto began selling, for about $2 each, face masks lined
with the ostrich antibodies. The swine flu circling the globe
has heightened the Japanese obsession with wearing face masks,
leading shops to sell out plain white surgical types as well as
patterned varieties, such as those with Mickey Mouse themes.
“Masks have become part of social etiquette as they give
Japanese a sense of security that they and those around them
aren’t spreading diseases,” Masataka Yoshikawa, who tracks
consumer behavior at market researcher Hakuhodo Institute of
Life and Living, said in a telephone interview from Tokyo.
Millions of Masks
Tsukamoto’s Kyoto, western Japan-based Ostrich Pharma Corp.
makes 1.6 kilograms of ostrich egg-derived antibodies per month,
enough to produce 32 million masks. Since July last year, 12
million of the masks have been sold through sites such as
Amazon.co.jp, where they’re priced around 8,400 yen ($88) for 36.
The masks are coated with antibodies against four strains
of flu viruses, including the H5N1 avian variety. The ostrich-
based antibodies envelop viruses that come in contact with the
mask and disable the germs so that a wearer won’t get the flu,
Tsukamoto said his research shows.
“I discovered ostriches have a stronger immune system
against many infectious diseases among birds,” Tsukamoto said
from his farm in Kobe, western Japan.
Tsukamoto’s research comes as drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline
Plc, Sanofi-Aventis SA, and CSL Ltd. prepare to manufacture
swine flu vaccines, and health authorities track the virus to
determine if it mutates into a more serious form during the
Southern Hemisphere’s winter.
Worldwide infections of swine flu, formally known as H1N1,
totaled 15,510 including 99 deaths, or a fatality rate of less
than 1 percent, according to the Geneva-based World Health
Organization. Japan has about 370 cases based on health ministry
figures, the highest number in Asia, where no deaths have been
reported.
Sold Out
Worry over the spread of flu has led face masks to be sold
out in Japanese stores. Masks with prints of Winnie the Pooh
from Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. are priced at 198 yen each on
Kenko.com Inc.’s shopping site, 10 times the cost of Unicharm
Corp.’s plain versions that come in a pack of 30.
Concern about the increasing reach of the virus in Japan,
the world’s second-largest economy, also caused business and
school trips to be cancelled and hotel occupancy to drop. The
western prefectures of Hyogo and Osaka have been hardest hit,
accounting for 95 percent of cases, Ito Mihara, a health
ministry spokesman said on May 27.
A total of 13 conferences have been canceled at the Osaka
International Convention Center after the first locally
transmitted case was found in Japan May 16, Hironobu Matsuo, a
spokesman for the venue, said May 21.
Pandemic Panic
“Virulence is weak and the death rate is low, so it has
little impact on Japan’s economy for now,” Takahide Kiuchi,
chief economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Tokyo, said by phone
on May 27. “We will have to be careful about the economic
impact if the virus mutates in future and the government orders
restrictions on business activities.”
Hiroko Ishiga, 70, waited in a line of about 50 people
mostly wearing masks in front of a branch of Allied Hearts
Holdings Co.’s Lifort drugstore on May 22, hoping to secure
some masks after failing at two shops.
“I have only 20 masks left at home,” said Ishiga. “I
even tried to call my family in Tottori prefecture, but masks
were not available there either.” Tottori is about 120
kilometers (75 miles) northwest of Kobe.
Until the outbreak eases, Yukiko Yamaguchi, a resident in
Kobe and mother of a 10-month-old baby girl, may move to her
parents’ home in Kagawa Prefecture, about 110 kilometers
southwest across the sea from her house.
Polluted Area
“I am even considering evacuating this polluted area,”
said Yamaguchi. “Some might say we are overreacting. I just
don’t want to lose my only daughter.”
“We are telling people to wear masks,” Hyogo Governor
Toshizo Ido told reporters at a May 22 briefing in Kobe. “I
highly thank my citizens for taking care of their own health.”
The flu virus is spread when speaking, sneezing or coughing
via respiratory droplets that normally fall to the ground or the
nearest surface within a meter, said Peter Cordingley, a WHO
spokesman in Manila.
People who aren’t well or who are taking care of someone
who’s infected should wear masks to protect themselves and
others, he said.
“Masks probably serve little purpose in a normal social
setting,” Cordingley said by e-mail. “But WHO recognizes that
the use of masks is a standard response in Japan to outbreaks of
respiratory disease and does not advise against them.”
Not Worth It
Researcher Tsukamoto first tried killing ostriches to
derive antibodies from their blood, an effort that “wasn’t
worth it.”
“The breakthrough was when I managed to make the
antibodies I wanted from their egg yolks,” he said. “The
amount of antibodies that can be made from one ostrich egg
equals that from 10 liters of their blood, or the amount in one
ostrich.”
Antibodies are produced by the immune system in response to
infections and illnesses. Versions have been created in
laboratories to mute overactive immune systems in some diseases.
Tsukamoto’s research had shown antibodies produced from
ostrich eggs to be effective in eradicating avian flu as well as
preventing its spread.
In one study, a batch of chicks with H5N1 avian flu was
injected with an antibody obtained from ostriches, while a
second group of infected birds wasn’t. At the end of five days,
75 percent of chicks in the first group survived with no
symptoms, while all in the second died, according to the study
published in Molecular Medicine Reports in 2008.
Chicks and Filters
Tsukamoto tested the efficacy of antibody-coated filters in
preventing the virus’s spread in another study. He placed
infected chicks in two boxes, one with a filter infused with
antibodies and the other without, and put them in two separate
cages containing healthy birds. All healthy chicks in the cage
with the antibody filter were alive after four days, while only
half survived in the other, according to his study.
Tsukamoto is now testing whether his antibodies are safe
and effective as treatments in the event of a pandemic involving
a virus as deadly as the bird flu.
“I am building my stockpile of antibodies in anticipation
of a life-or-death scenario,” the researcher said after
administering some injections to his birds on the farm. “I
already have enough to make masks for the whole world.” ( This is a remarkable claim since there are 6.7 BILLION people in the world and if they used 1 mask a day for an 8 week wave of flu.....do the math..........Not credible.....Fla1)
http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/73898.php