Hi Martin,
in relation to the “wild bird thesis” Monthy Pythons sketch does not match perfectly. In context of the H5N1 outbreaks (especially here in Germany..) it would be better to speak about “Most dangerous ninja house sparrows” (or something like this, maybe “kamikaze-ducks” would be another good choice..) instead of “Most dangerous man of the world”. 
If we take a look at the last outbreaks in Germany (the fist one on Ruegen is without any plausible explanation), there must be something like invisible sparrows – which breaks in the enclosures of i.e. (related to the “Rotterdam Zoo” / Netherland..) northern hawk owls (Surnia ulula), by the way day active, bre carnivores – sets the virus free and disappears without a trace. Even the outbreaks in Dresden were limited to the black swans, no other cases in the area around ’em , no clustering of outbreaks which would to expect if wild birds were vectors of H5N1.
A few words abot the $2 trillion USD which would an pandemic costs: The pandemic is – at this time – an highly hypothetical thing. If the World Bank wishes to calculate the costs of hypothesises, they had to calculate the costs for the meteorite hit of 1950da (1.1 Km diameter, appears in march 2880 with the proof of 0.33 percent) too. No virologist neither knows in which form (high / low pathogenic) nor when the pandemic mutation of the virus will happen.
The last achievements of our brave new world (Huxley) are “War on terrorism” and “War on H5N1”. Maybe it would an good idea (for ecological reasons) to unite them within one “War on [H5N1] terror” campaign. In february 2006 when the H5N1 media hype begun here in Germany i published these website:
http://www.gegenpropaganda.org/html/h5n1_satire_cia.htm
An other project of mine was the “Petition against preventative slaughtering (“culling”) of animals” which were signed by more than 3,700 people.
http://www.gegenpropaganda.org/html/h5n1_uebersetzungen.php
And my new website – particularly related to H5N1 too – is now online too:
http://www.federtiere.net/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
These links just to give a little information about myself and my own position to the H5N1 media hype. Of course there is an risc of pandemic mutation. But all steps of prevention have to concider carefully. The killing of 200 million healthy birds in example may not be, in any instance, an acceptable option.
Sincerely,
Werner Hupperich
PS: Sorry about some spelling mistakes, but my english is possibly not in best condition.. 