Home > News, Science > Maybe we need sex education for birds? Bird flu is an STD.

Maybe we need sex education for birds? Bird flu is an STD.

October 20th, 2009 Wade Leave a comment Go to comments

According to a post at NewScientist, bird flu (avian flu) is actually an STD – at least, it is in ducks. While not completely confirmed yet, it is believed to be the case. Although unlike humans, the more promiscuous the duck, the less likely it is to become infected (wha?); apparently “…It’s all to do with penis size and the complexity of the females’ vagina…”

duck-sign-fail

When the researchers compared data on the prevalence of low-pathogenic bird flu strains in different duck species with what is known about the anatomy of duc

k reproductive parts and mating behaviour, they found that ducks with the smallest penises and tamest sex lives had the highest flu levels.

“This is intriguing and a bit counter-intuitive because a long phallus prolongs copulation, and forced copulations characteristic to species with a large phallus should further promote virus transfer,” says Hegyi.

I can’t help but feel humans got the short stick (pun intended) when it comes to STD’s!

Image from failking.com.


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