Do chickens sneeze?

It seems to be a common belief that like mad cow disease, avian flu can be caught by humans eating chicken meat. According to health officials that is not true. You are more at risk of catching the virus by walking through an infected chicken coop.

"Still, as seriously as health experts take the bird flu, none think of it as a food-borne illness. It is a group of flu viruses that infect birds. In fact, these viruses occur naturally in wild birds, which carry the bugs in their intestines but usually don't get sick from them. The current concern relates to the virus' spread to domesticated poultry flocks -- chicken, turkey and duck -- mainly in Asia but spreading into Eastern Europe and beyond.

Humans who are at risk have direct contact with affected poultry. Infected birds shed the virus through their feces, and that is mainly how the virus spreads. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exposure is considered most likely during slaughter, de-feathering, butchering, and preparation of poultry for cooking. It is contact with live or recently slaughtered birds that puts people at risk."
http://www.netwellness.org/healthtopics/poison/poultry.cfm

Also
This is a very informative article from a scientific standpoint, and explains many things. He says our main cause of concern is for the virus to mutate and be passed from human- human.
A stat from this site says while there have been more than 100 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans, ""Two million people die each year from tuberculosis (TB)". That's each year!"

Another informative article here.