Bird Flu Found In Suffolk

[~Dazed&&Confused~]

Experts are trying to establish whether an outbreak of bird flu at a Suffolk turkey farm is the deadly H5N1 strain. The farm, owned by Bernard Matthews, is at Holton near Lowestoft and has been placed under tight restrictions.

More than 2,600 turkeys have died so far.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said preliminary tests had confirmed a bird flu outbreak.

But a spokeswoman said the risk of the disease spreading to humans was low and there was no

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need for "panic".

She said staff at the farm - thought to be in the village of Holton - were being monitored and restrictions were in force to stop birds being moved in or out of the site.

The birds started to die on Tuesday and Defra was alerted on Thursday after 860 birds had died, in one out of 22 sheds at the farm.

Defra has yet to say whether any exclusions zones will be set up and how many birds will have to be slaughtered.

A spokesman for Bernard Matthews said the incident had been contained and all the infected birds culled, without any entering the food chain.

He said: "Bernard Matthews has been working very closely with Defra and other industry bodies to contain the infection. The company meets and in many cases far exceeds Defra's biosecurity standards for combating avian flu."

It is the second time in less than 12 months that UK-reared poultry has been hit by bird flu.

More than 30,000 birds were slaughtered after chickens near Dereham, Norfolk, tested positive in April.

One worker at the farm caught the disease and was treated for an eye infection.

In April 2006, a wild swan found in Cellardyke, Fife, had the version of the virus - H5N1 - which has been responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people, mostly in Asia.

The swan was thought to have caught the disease abroad, died at sea and its body washed to the UK shore.

Defra said experts had confirmed that latest the outbreak was a H5 version.

A Defra spokeswoman said: "Avian Influenza is a disease of birds and whilst it can pass very rarely and with difficulty to humans, this requires extremely close contact with infected birds, particularly faeces."

Suffolk County Council has set up a bird flu helpline on 08456 032 814

[TheWizard]

Scary

[Hyper]

Not to me :P I consider the bird flu a mythical thing, that has always existed

[Dante]

damn! ppl need to realize that this is a serious problem.

[Maverick]

There's not much we can do about it. No use trying to worry over something that can't be controlled, let alone something that isn't even a confirmed threat to us.

[ScotsGirl]

But it could become a confirmed threat.
That is what they are worried about, the virus could come into contact with the human form of influenza and this could lead to a mutation which could be harmful to both birds and humans.

Although its impossible to totally control the spread of it, they can keep on trying, which in turn, decreases the chance of this mutation from happening.

If youre not in an affected area, then thats true, theres not much you can do except hope that it doesnt get as bad as it could... because it is a very real threat.

xxx

[Zazu]

Well I'm just anticipating the havoc that will be wreeked by this. People are just going to have the view of "Omg, I'm going to get bird flu by being within 20 metres of a bird" but of course this is ridiculous. My Dad used to research on this sort of stuff and you would quite literally have to role around with the infected birds to catch it. But the scary though is that some infected meat has got out.

Not to me I consider the bird flu a mythical thing, that has always existed

I don't know if you live in England but this could be a major threat to our poultry industry. It is one of the big ones in the UK. And there is the chance of there being not enough turkeys and chickens for Christmas, and in England you just have to have a turkey at X-Mas, you just do. Basically, if any one wants a turkey this year, exscuse my french, but they could be fucked, and the whole nation might want one, so the industry is in big big trouble.