One for the birds

READERS who think that there is nothing of significance to be gleaned from the sports pages will be pleasantly surprised to learn today that your correspondent has come up with an ingenious solution to the problem of bird flu.

To be avoided at all costs, surely, is the distressing scenario whereby we might have to cull our feathered friends in huge and indiscriminate numbers, especially if it means that we will be deprived of the chance to sit down to a nice chicken curry afterwards.

My proposal: kill only the male of the species. The logic is obvious: while male birds will obviously succumb to the full-blown flu, female birds will merely report a slight head cold. QED.