Farmer
Senior Moderator
TESTS are being carried out to determine the mystery cause of the deaths of more than 20 birds found strewn along Great Yarmouth beach amid fears that bird flu has arrived in the town.
Environmental health officers from the government department Defra rushed to the seafront on Wednesday within hours of being informed of the cluster of dead seagulls and wading birds to take the animals away for testing.
Glenn Buck, Yarmouth Borough Council's senior environmental health officer, made the call to the environmental protection agency and said the hasty response suggested the incident was being taken seriously.
He did not wish to speculate on the likely cause of the deaths, but did not think the birds had been poisoned because of the large numbers found in a small area and because people are only allowed to cull seagulls.
He said the council only found out about the incident on Wednesday but despatched officers to the scene within an hour of being called by Yarmouth resident Jamal El-Shetob, who had found the birds while out walking his dog.
?My gut feeling is that we are looking at a natural phenomenon, some disease within the bird population which caused my alarm bells to start ringing that it could be bird flu,? he said.
He did not know whether tests were trying to determine the presence of bird flu, but hoped to find out the results within the next couple of days.
Mr Buck said although the risk to the public of catching the deadly virus was minimal, visitors to the beach should not go near or handle dead birds because of the risk of infection.
Mr El-Shetob, 33, who lives in Admiralty Road, thought the cause of the dead birds was toxic waste from two blue barrel-like containers with hazard warning stickers on the side which he found on the beach near the entrance to the Pleasure Beach, but council officers decided the empty containers had held a harmless cleaning fluid and been dumped from a ship.
He uncovered the horde while dog walking last Tuesday and has found a number of other dead birds since.
?I have not noticed this many dead seagulls in the last four or five years since I have lived in the area,? he said.
Defra spokeswoman Linda Scott said Defra had increased surveillance around the south east of England, East Anglia and Northamptonshire because of the risk posed by birds migrating from France and Germany, where bird flu had been found.
She said if a case is found then a 3km protection zone is placed around the site and then a further 10km zone around that to prevent the disease spreading through the movement of birds and livestock, such as to farmers markets.
?It is not unusual for birds to be tested. It is a purely precautionary measure based on the evidence of where migrating birds would tend to come into the country, such as France and Germany, and as these areas have had bird flu then tests are carried out.?
The H5N1 virus, which is the deadliest form of bird flu, can only be spread among people by coming into contact with human flu and mutating to form a new virus which humans would have little or no resistance to.
In February, turkey manufacturer Bernard Matthews hit the headlines when the H5N1 strain was found on one of its farms at nearby Lowestoft resulting in the cull of 160,000 birds.
Anyone who finds a cluster of dead birds should phone Defra's helpline on 08459 335577.
http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co....gory=news&itemid=NOED11 Oct 2007 18:15:10:920
Environmental health officers from the government department Defra rushed to the seafront on Wednesday within hours of being informed of the cluster of dead seagulls and wading birds to take the animals away for testing.
Glenn Buck, Yarmouth Borough Council's senior environmental health officer, made the call to the environmental protection agency and said the hasty response suggested the incident was being taken seriously.
He did not wish to speculate on the likely cause of the deaths, but did not think the birds had been poisoned because of the large numbers found in a small area and because people are only allowed to cull seagulls.
He said the council only found out about the incident on Wednesday but despatched officers to the scene within an hour of being called by Yarmouth resident Jamal El-Shetob, who had found the birds while out walking his dog.
?My gut feeling is that we are looking at a natural phenomenon, some disease within the bird population which caused my alarm bells to start ringing that it could be bird flu,? he said.
He did not know whether tests were trying to determine the presence of bird flu, but hoped to find out the results within the next couple of days.
Mr Buck said although the risk to the public of catching the deadly virus was minimal, visitors to the beach should not go near or handle dead birds because of the risk of infection.
Mr El-Shetob, 33, who lives in Admiralty Road, thought the cause of the dead birds was toxic waste from two blue barrel-like containers with hazard warning stickers on the side which he found on the beach near the entrance to the Pleasure Beach, but council officers decided the empty containers had held a harmless cleaning fluid and been dumped from a ship.
He uncovered the horde while dog walking last Tuesday and has found a number of other dead birds since.
?I have not noticed this many dead seagulls in the last four or five years since I have lived in the area,? he said.
Defra spokeswoman Linda Scott said Defra had increased surveillance around the south east of England, East Anglia and Northamptonshire because of the risk posed by birds migrating from France and Germany, where bird flu had been found.
She said if a case is found then a 3km protection zone is placed around the site and then a further 10km zone around that to prevent the disease spreading through the movement of birds and livestock, such as to farmers markets.
?It is not unusual for birds to be tested. It is a purely precautionary measure based on the evidence of where migrating birds would tend to come into the country, such as France and Germany, and as these areas have had bird flu then tests are carried out.?
The H5N1 virus, which is the deadliest form of bird flu, can only be spread among people by coming into contact with human flu and mutating to form a new virus which humans would have little or no resistance to.
In February, turkey manufacturer Bernard Matthews hit the headlines when the H5N1 strain was found on one of its farms at nearby Lowestoft resulting in the cull of 160,000 birds.
Anyone who finds a cluster of dead birds should phone Defra's helpline on 08459 335577.
http://www.greatyarmouthmercury.co....gory=news&itemid=NOED11 Oct 2007 18:15:10:920