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Bird flu (H5N1) in Norfolk Confirmed, November 12 +
i presume the birds that are carrying the virus are flying around the british countryside,i wonder if we will hear of further outbreaks,in other parts of the country,and is it just me or has newsnow been told to not post any news about this outbreak,there is nothing on there sight about it.
The birds were free range - meaning they had access to the outdoors and were at greater risk of exposure to the wildfowl that visit an ornamental lake next door.
Ornamental Lake??????
Could there be a better bird flu magnet???
They should know better.
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"The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation
H5 Norfolk Outbreak Linked to Wild Birds Recombinomics Commentary
November 12, 2007
The disease was discovered on Sunday by a vet who noticed that there had been a growing number of turkey deaths in one of the five sheds on the Norfolk farm.
about 60 turkeys in a flock of 1,000 had tested positive. The alarm had been raised on Sunday after a rise in death rates.
Veterinary experts believe wild birds are the most likely cause of the disease ? especially as a consignment of birds has not been brought to the farm for four weeks, and wild birds gather at a lake near the farm.
The above comments provide additional data supporting Qinghai H5N1 infections of Norfolk poultry via wild birds. The sudden deaths raised concerns, and the H5 positive birds strongly suggested that the deaths were due to highly pathogenic H5N1.
All recent H5N1 high path infections west of China have been the Qinghai version of H5N1, including dead and dying wild birds. The most recent reported outbreaks in wild birds in Germany over the summer. H5N1 was also found in smaller outbreaks in France and the Czech Republic, signaling more outbreaks in the fall.
The lack of movement of birds to the farm, coupled with the farms proximity to the nearby lake strongly suggest that the free range birds on the farm were infected by wild birds in the region.
These data strongly suggest that confirmation of Qinghai H5N1 will be announced shortly.
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"The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation
East Anglia's battered poultry industry was last night reeling from the second outbreak of H5 avian flu to be confirmed in a matter of months.
The deadly strain of bird flu was found in a flock of 5,000 free range turkeys at Park Farm, Redgrave, near Diss, and immediately reported to Defra's animal health officials.
The latest case follows the first outbreak of the deadly strain of H5N1 in 159,000 turkeys at the Bernard Matthews turkey farm at Holton, near Halesworth, in early February.
Although tests have not identified the precise strain of the latest outbreak, all the birds will be culled to prevent the spread of the disease. And Defra immediately ordered a 3km protection zone around the farm - a ban on poultry movements - plus a further 10km surveillance zone, where farmers will have to keep birds indoors.
The return of bird flu is the latest blow to East Anglian livestock farmers in a year that has seen outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and the arrival of the midge-born bluetongue virus from continental Europe.
But while farmers expressed dismay at the latest disease threat ahead of the vitally-important Christmas season, the Food Standards Agency reassured consumers that poultry products remained safe to eat.
Bird flu rarely affects humans and can only be transmitted to people through close contact with infected birds.
The turkeys, 1,000 ducks and 500 geese at Redgrave Park Farm, which are reared for Gressingham Foods, will be culled, said Defra officials as part of efforts to prevent spread of the disease.
William Buchanan, commercial director of Gressingham Foods of Woodbridge in Suffolk, said the incident was reported promptly.
?It was picked up Sunday morning and our vet was on site yesterday lunchtime and Animal Health were out immediately,? he said.
A total of 60 turkeys had died out of a total 1,000 birds in one outdoor flock, Mr Buchanan added.
?It is confirmed as H5 and not as H5N1. We don't know whether it is high-pathogenic or low pathogenic and we don't know the type,? he added.
A total of 6,000 birds - turkeys, geese and ducks - were being reared at Redgrave Park Farm, which is owned by Mr G A Topham.
Deputy chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said the cause of the infection was not known at the moment and he urged all poultry farmers to remain vigilant. ?Everybody needs to be concerned, this is avian influenza.
"We are asking every poultry keeper to be vigilant, to house their birds where they are required to do so in any restricted area and carry out good bio-security measures and report any signs of disease."
Dr Landeg stressed that the epidemiological investigation into the outbreak, which is at a rearing unit, would try to establish its origin but that it was still at a very early stage.
?We will be looking at the movements on to the premises and off the premises of birds and movements of people, vehicles and things, to see whether there is another origin somewhere in the country or whether the disease could have spread.?
National Farmers' Union president Peter Kendall said: ?Obviously this is another huge blow to the farming industry, which is still dealing with the effects of bluetongue and foot-and-mouth.?
Charles Bourns, chairman of the NFU's poultry board, added: "This is obviously worrying for that part of the world.
"This problem comes on top of everything else going on, such as high food prices, so it's worrying and concerning.?
But he said: "We have proved from the last two years that bird flu can be held on the one farm so hopefully that can be done this time.'
Shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth described the bird flu outbreak - the first incidence of the H5 strain in the UK since 159,000 turkeys were slaughtered at a Bernard Matthews farm in February - as "another nightmare' for the farming community.
Two police officers were last night standing outside the farm, monitoring the vehicles entering and leaving.
The vehicles were being sprayed with disinfectant as they entered the premises.
The RSPB's Andre Farrar warned against jumping to the conclusion that the disease had spread to poultry from wild birds.
The autumn migration was largely over, and no wild birds had been found with avian flu in Europe since late August/early September, he added
The Redgrave farm has a number of open sheds, which house the free-range birds. There are a large number of other poultry units nearby with at least 90 holdings with more than 50 birds inside the 10km surveillance zone. And there are an estimated 40,000 geese on farms in the immediate neighbourhood.
A wider restricted zone covering much of Norfolk and the whole of Suffolk and requires poultry to be isolated from wild birds.
Movements within this zone can take place, but movements are not permitted out of the new zone at present.
Bird gatherings, bird shows and pigeon racing will no longer be permitted as a precaution.
A meeting of the Department of Agriculture's National Disease Control Centre management team took place in Dublin yesterday following reports of an outbreak of bird flu on a farm in Norfolk.
Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan said the team had reviewed the department's contingency arrangements and had reassessed the risk of the introduction of the disease into Ireland.
The meeting took place after it emerged that an outbreak of the disease has been confirmed at a turkey farm in eastern England.
Fine Gael Agriculture and Food Spokesperson, Michael Creed TD called for the urgent establishment of a National Biosecurity Committee in light of the reports.
He said the threat posed to the poultry industry further reinforced the need for greater vigilance on behalf of the Government, particularly in light of the Bluetongue and Foot and Mouth Disease scares in recent months.
"This latest outbreak of avian flu reinforces the need for urgent action on behalf of the Government to eliminate any further threat to Irish agriculture.
"With reports of 5,000 birds being slaughtered and preliminary tests indicating the infected turkeys had the H5 strain of bird flu, it is time to act on this issue and prevent any potential threat to the poultry sector.
Nov 13 2007 By Press Association
EXPERTS examining Britain's latest outbreak of bird flu in a flock of free-range turkeys are expected to determine today if it was the highly infectious H5N1 form of the disease.
Scientists were understood to have stayed up throughout the night to continue tests on the strain found at a rearing unit in Redgrave, Suffolk.
Bird flu's return to British shores is yet another blow to farmers, who are already struggling to recover after being hit by foot-and-mouth and bluetongue.
There are fears that it could spread and devastate the hugely-profitable Christmas trade in poultry meat, which would add to the huge losses already caused by the other diseases.
Around 5,000 birds, including ducks and geese, on the infected farm were being culled last night after testing positive for the contagious H5 strain.
The alarm was raised on Sunday after a rise in death rates among the birds, which are owned by poultry producer Gressingham Foods, based in Woodbridge, Suffolk.
Around 6,000 birds were on the site when the virus emerged and the site's operations director Geoff Buchanan said about 60 turkeys in a flock of 1,000 had tested positive.
Government vets immediately began trying to establish if they had the highly-pathogenic form of the disease, and are expected to have a better picture of the outbreak's seriousness today.
In February, nearly 160,000 birds were culled after an outbreak of the H5N1 form of the virus at a Bernard Matthews poultry plant in Holton, Suffolk.
In April 2006, chickens on a farm near Dereham Common, Norfolk tested positive for the less serious H7 strain of the virus.
Mr Buchanan said his firm was co-operating with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and that it was hopeful the latest outbreak would be contained.
He said: "The other two outbreaks were contained and we are hopeful that this one will be too. We are learning lessons about this all of the time and we will cooperate with Defra in any way we can."
He added that Gressingham Foods also ran a nearby poultry plant in Redgrave but that there was no evidence that birds there had been affected.
Protection and surveillance zones, set at 3km and 10km respectively, were immediately put in place around the infected farm restricting the movement of birds and requiring them to be housed and isolated from wild birds.
A statement released on behalf of Bernard Matthews said the affected farm was not owned by the company and none of Bernard Matthews' farms fell within the 3km exclusion zone.
Defra later announced further restrictions in a wider area as a "precautionary measure", after consultation with experts, meaning the whole of Suffolk and much of Norfolk were affected.
Movement within the extended area but not beyond was allowed and general licences for "low risk movements" were expected to be made available shortly, it said.
The national general licence permitting bird gatherings in England has also been revoked and bird shows and pigeon racing are not allowed under the rules currently in place.
Deputy chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg urged poultry farmers to remain vigilant and keep up their bio-security measures in order to stop the disease spreading.
He said: "Everybody needs to be concerned, this is avian influenza.
"We are asking every poultry keeper to be vigilant, to house their birds where they are required to do so in any restricted area and carry out good bio-security measures and report any signs of disease."
But experts reassured the public that the risk to them was minimal because bird flu rarely affects humans and is only transmitted through close contact with infected birds.
People were also urged by the Food Standards Agency not to shy away from eating eggs and poultry meat and told that they remain safe as long as they are properly cooked.
And poultry industry leaders swiftly moved to allay fears that the bird flu outbreak would lead to a shortage of Christmas turkeys.
National Farmers' Union poultry board chairman Charles Bourns said the cull was only a small proportion of the 10 million turkeys bought for Christmas each year.
...experts reassured the public that the risk to them was minimal because bird flu rarely affects humans and is only transmitted through close contact with infected birds.
So how does one cook a Christmas turkey without close contact?
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Last edited by AlaskaDenise; November 13, 2007, 03:00 AM.
Reason: add sarcasm
"The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation
Up to 5,000 birds faced slaughter last night after avian flu was confirmed on a poultry farm.
The H5 strain of the virus was detected by preliminary tests when turkeys fell ill at the farm which supplies supermarket giants Sainsbury's, Somerfield and Budgen.
The free range holding in Redgrave, Suffolk, is one of several in the area run by Gressingham Foods.
Farming leaders insisted the cull at Redgrave Park Farm would not lead to a shortage of turkeys in the run up to Christmas.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed all the birds at the farm including ducks and geese would be killed.
It is believed that they will be loaded into mobile gas chambers today.
Further tests will confirm whether the outbreak is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain which can be passed on to and potentially kill humans.
That was last detected in Britain in February in turkeys at a Bernard Matthews farm 27 miles away in Holton, Suffolk, but the Government said that the two outbreaks were unlikely to be linked.
Last night Defra imposed a 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone around the Redgrave area to restrict the movement of poultry and isolate them from wild birds.
The cause of the infection is not yet known but deputy chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said: "We are asking every poultry keeper to be vigilant, carry out good biosecurity measures and report any signs of disease."
Shadow Environment Secretary Peter Ainsworth said: "This is yet another nightmare for the farming community and we can only hope that this is an isolated case."
The Lib Dem environment spokesman Chris Huhne said the outbreak made it a "hattrick of horror stories" for British farming following foot and mouth and bluetongue.
The National Farmers' Union branded it "another huge blow to the farming industry".
Staff at Gressingham Foods, known as Green Label Foods until last year, refused to comment last night.
As workers left the farm yesterday their vehicles were sprayed with disinfectant to help contain the infection.
Four police officers stood guard at the gates. HOW KILLER VIRUS HIT UK
Oct 21, 2005: Parrot dies of H5N1 strain in Essex.
April 5, 2006: Dead swan in wild in Fife is first UK case of H5.
Jan 30, 2007: More than 70 farm turkeys die in Holton, Suffolk.
Jan 31: Another 186 die at the Bernard Matthews farm.
Feb 1: 860 more birds die there.
Feb 2: H5 strain confirmed.
Feb 3: All 159,000 turkeys to be culled. Restriction zone set up.
Feb 5: Slaughter completed.
Feb 8: H5N1 virus hits three more barns at farm. Birds culled.
Feb 13: First turkeys arrive at the Bernard Matthews plant as operations are allowed to resume.
May 24: Case of H7N2 bird flu confirmed in North Wales.
May 27: Four people test positive for bird flu, two from North Wales and two from North-West England.
Nov 12: New outbreak in Suffolk.
Press Association Tuesday November 13, 2007 4:08 AM
Experts examining Britain's latest outbreak of bird flu in a flock of free-range turkeys are expected to determine if it was the highly-infectious H5N1 form of the disease.
Scientists were understood to have stayed up throughout the night to continue tests on the strain found at a rearing unit in Redgrave, Suffolk. Bird flu's return to British shores is yet another blow to farmers, who are already struggling to recover after being hit by foot-and-mouth and bluetongue.
There are fears bird flu could spread and devastate the hugely-profitable Christmas trade in poultry meat, which would add to the huge losses already caused by the other diseases.
About 5,000 birds on the infected farm, including ducks and geese, were being culled after testing positive for the contagious H5 strain.
The alarm was raised on Sunday after a rise in death rates among the birds, which are owned by poultry producer Gressingham Foods, based in Woodbridge, Suffolk.
About 6,000 birds were on the site when the virus emerged and the site's operations director Geoff Buchanan said about 60 turkeys in a flock of 1,000 had tested positive.
Government vets immediately began trying to establish if they had the highly-pathogenic form of the disease, and are expected to have a better picture of the outbreak's seriousness later on Tuesday.
Mr Buchanan said his firm was co-operating with the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and that it was hopeful the latest outbreak would be contained."
National Farmers' Union poultry board chairman Charles Bourns said the cull was only a small proportion of the 10 million turkeys bought for Christmas each year.
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"The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation
SO....Dr. Niman isn't the only scientist staying up all night working on this.
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"The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation
<!-- calling either author module or display by line -->
By JOHN TROUP
<!-- NB: This is a variation of M002 without an image or author--><!-- The entire DIV surrounding the image has been removed --><!-- The first two paragraphs with class author have been removed --><!-- BEGIN: M002 Author Details v2 -->Published: Today
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<!-- END: m003 Rig Teaser --><!-- BEGIN: Module - Main Article --><!--Display article with page breaks --><ROOTTAG>FIVE thousand Christmas birds were being slaughtered last night after an outbreak of avian flu among turkeys.
Tests showed the turkeys, on a farm in Suffolk, had the H5 strain of the disease.
Map ... infected zone
It was not known if they were suffering from the virulent H5N1 form, which can kill humans.
A two-mile protection zone and six-mile surveillance zone were set up around the free range farm ? Redgrave Park Farm near Diss ? to stop the bug spreading.
It is just 20 miles to the west of the Bernard Matthews farm hit by bird flu in February.
Bird movements were yesterday restricted within the zones.
Cull ... 159,000 turkeys
were killed in February
Ducks and geese were also culled at the farm, which raises poultry for Gressingham Foods.
They supply supermarkets including Sainsbury, Budgen and Somerfield.
Deputy chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said the source of the new outbreak is unknown.
He added: ?We ask every poultry keeper to be vigilant . . . and report any signs of disease.?
<IMG title="Guard ... cops on
watch last night" alt="Guard ... cops on
watch last night" src="http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00388/snn1306a2g180_388362a.jpg" border=0> Guard ... cops on
watch last night
He added movements of birds, people and vehicles on and off the farm were being studied to try to establish if the bird flu was brought in ? or if it could have spread.
He also stressed there was no risk from eating properly cooked poultry or eggs.
Last night shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth said the outbreak was ?another nightmare? for the farming community.
He added: ?Farmers have endured so much and the last thing they need is an outbreak of bird flu in the run-up to Christmas.?
Charles Bourns, chairman of the NFU?s poultry board, said: ?We?ve proved from the last two years that bird flu can be held on the one farm so hopefully that can be done this time.?
He said the cull would not hit supplies, with 10million turkeys available.
Experts last night discounted possible links to the Bernard Matthews farm at Holton, Suffolk, where 159,000 turkeys were culled.
A PLANNED pay strike by Bernard Matthews staff was called off last night.
Union Unite agreed to scrap the action ? due to start with a one-day stoppage on Thursday.
The company, which employs 3,500 across East Anglia, had threatened to serve an injunction against the union.
Members are protesting against a two per cent pay award.
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"The next major advancement in the health of American people will be determined by what the individual is willing to do for himself"-- John Knowles, Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation
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Map ... infected zone
Cull ... 159,000 turkeys
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