Bird flu..

According to the news we have this dreadfull disease on our shores its just so sad and i hope they manage to get it under control before it spreads..

Government vets are investigating an outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm after thousands of turkeys died.

Experts were called to the farm near Lowestoft, Suffolk, late on Thursday following the outbreak of an "unexplained" illness.

About 2,600 turkeys are thought to have died.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 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 is no need for "panic".


Defra said experts had confirmed that the outbreak is an H5 version.

The spokeswoman said analysts would have more detail about the strain later.

 

Yes WF, bird-flu is with us at Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Suffolk. We are told in the local paper that it will not hurt to eat an infected bird because the virus will be killed when the meat is cooked. Who would chance it? :eek:

 

JJordie..No i dont fancy eating that !! I have just been watching it on sky news and they keep saying they have contained it..But dont seem to say how it got their in the first place !! And also they told you to boil eggs i really hope this isnt going to spread..Apparently the infected turkeys were 56 days old and it makes me wonder why they didnt notice they were dieing quicker as they couldnt all have dropped dead at the same time..
Lets hope it is sorted and they dont try to hoodwink the public..

 

I am mighty suspicious. It all sounds a bit iffy. How did an infected wild bird get into a sealed unit? Anyone thought of terrorism yet? Supposing it was planted? I'd better shut up. Don't have nightmares

 

Its probably come in on someones shoes if its a sealed unit..lets hope it doesnt affect the bird population too much..as somewhere their is a bird with the illness passing on the germ..

 

It could have got into the poultry sheds in many ways the units are "sealed" in the sense that the last person in closes the door behind them!it is mighty suspicious that 2600 birds died before anyone thought to speak up? Lets hope that the government don't pursue an indiscriminate slaughter policy like they did with the foot and mouth fiasco. The thing is that only people with 50 birds or more were required to register with defra. No doubt this situation will be mis managed in traditional style, it is worth noting that defra will not comment about if they will pay compensation to the bird owners if they decide to kill their birds

 

its more then likelay got in the same same way ass foot and mouth from the lab

 

People with 50 birds had to register with DEFRA cause that is all they could cope with at the beginning. I think the idea is that eventually everybody who has poultry has to register, no matter how few they have. Whether they will get compensation if they slaughter is another question.

 

Well i have found a cure for bird flu in humans a herbal one and they suggest we start boosting our immune systems in advance.. :D :D most of it is things i allready knew such as ginger,,garlic..and elderberry..and large doses of vit c...If it starts to spread to humans we will have problems !!

 

At the time of writing this defra do not require anyione who has less than 50 birds to register,maybe they couldn't cope with the volume when they asked people to register,just look at the total pigs ear they made of thing when they decided that all equines should have a passport they just kept moving the deadline further and further away until they "couldn't comment" on when the horses needed their passports!.They refuse to comment about compensation because they have no idea of how many birds are in the country and what measures they are going to take when outbreaks of h5n1 recur. The government leave me in no doubt at all that they will make another mess out of the situation just like they did with the dreaded foot and mouth outbreak. If you contact defra by telephone and ask them for answers like what is the rate of compensation for birds that would be slaughtered if h5n1 occurs, they will ask you where are you in the UK how many birds have you? do you want to volunteer to register? as for the compensation no comment. I would wager that the mass slaughter that has occured at one of the Bernard Mathews facilities is well and truly covered financially

 

Bernard Matthews will probably be covered by insurance anyway but that won't cover him for what will happen next. I don't think I would want to have shares in Bernard Matthew's company even though turkey meat will be perfectly safe to eat. Any sympathy I have is tempered by revulsion for the way these birds are reared.
I have heard that if you register your flock with DEFRA you get a free flu jab. I get one anyway but that is because I am a heart patient. I think everybody who has chickens will have to register one day - just like with pigs where if you have one pig you have to get a holding number. If I was allowed I would still want to keep chickens. The more I find out how chickens are kept the more revulsion I feel. At least i could keep chickens in humane conditions.

 

I once knew a chap from Wisbeach who worked for a time in a chicken factory. He told some dreadful stories and NEVER ate chicken himself.

I wonder if the sales and availability of pelleted chicken manure will be affected.

 

My chickens are free range happy hens,i wouldn't think that the pelleted manure will be affected but you never know it's a good excuse for suppliers to hike up the price! as a young teenager i worked a saturday job in a battery farm the conditions were awful for the hens

 

I bet they have salamonella though GD - no offence, but most poultry do and also some form of flu, you honly have to go to a show and hear the birsd "Ruttle" when they breath.

Remember all that fuss Edwina Curry made over eggs. Having said that GD, I wish you were near enough to me to supply me with good eggs, its the thing I really miss my poultry for.

 

Hornbeam
Living in Norfolk I have over the years known several people who have worked for Bernard Matthews and yes, some of the stories told about how the chickens and turkeys were treated have been horrifying.

I have never knowingly bought anything from Bernard Matthews and always try to get free range organic eggs and poultry from local farmers.