Re: Hello Again


"Peter Duncanson" <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:qslmg1dphgftsvrmlmbg051gre77mkoqqb@xxxxxxxxxx
> On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 16:53:58 +0000 (UTC), "Pat Gardiner"
> <patgardiner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>
>>"Linda Sutherland" <linda.sutherland@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>news:3130303032353638430B5B6324@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> In message <430b2938$0$22907$ed2619ec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Howard Neil <hneil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
>>>
>>>> Peter Duncanson wrote:
>>>> > On Tue, 23 Aug 2005 13:10:27 +0100, Peter Duncanson
>>>> > <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> >

>>
>>Yes.
>
> Send that man down! He has failed to prove his innocence as required by
> this court. ;-))

Actually, I'm glad that you happened to mention that ;o)))

It would now seem likely that Britain's SVS are likely to face exactly that
situation.

British government vets, and their opinions, are likely to be competely
ignored by the EU, who will probably order our birds indoors.

We shall have to see how much weight they will pace on the opinions of the
incompetant and discredited SVS crooks who brought them BSE, FMD and PMWS.
The last being possibly the most serious.

Err, and yes I was in North Europe meeting EU political figures recently. I
did not have to prove my innocence. They already knew me. It was taken as
read.

Anyway the FT is a reliable souce, the EU investigation people already have
my evidence:

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/1bb1a3c4-13f9-11da-af53-00000e2511c8.html


Main page content:
Flu fears could force free-range poultry indoors
By Fiona Harvey, Environment Correspondent
Published: August 23 2005 18:22 | Last updated: August 23 2005 18:22

Poultry farmers are bracing themselves for the possibility that they will
have to bring fowl indoors as Brussels holds a crisis meeting on avian flu
on Thursday.

While the UK government insisted the risk of migratory wild birds carrying
avian flu to British shores was "very small", farmers' groups demanded more
information on the virus and warned of potential damage to the egg and
poultry industries.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has not advised
farmers to bring birds indoors, as has happened in the Netherlands and is
looking likely in Germany. But this could change if Thursday's meeting of
European Union officials and veterinary experts judge the threat to be more
serious than previously thought.
Charles Bourns, chairman of the poultry board at the National Farmers'
Union, said: "If the advice from the government changes, farmers must be
ready to bring their flocks indoors. That would be a logical precaution when
the time is right."
Birds kept outside generally qualify for "free-range" status, which means
farmers can command a sizeable premium for their meat and eggs. If such
birds were to be brought indoors for a period of months until the threat of
bird flu from migratory fowl was judged to have passed, farmers want
reassurances that the status could be maintained.
British poultry farmers sell about £1.3bn worth of birds a year for their
meat, according to figures from the National Farmers' Union, of which about
5 per cent is free-range. The egg industry is worth about £350m a year at
the farm gate, of which more than 25 per cent is free- range. Peter
Bradnock, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, said: "[The
situation] is certainly very worrying. There is an increasing number of
free-range farmers. But we are better equipped at contingency planning now."
Photographs of Russian veterinary workers burning birds in recent days
recalled scenes from the foot-and-mouth crisis of 2001, when pyres of
burning cattle became a common sight in the British countryside. Experts
agreed, however, that the risk to poultry at present was on nothing like the
same scale as that disease outbreak.
Migratory birds have been blamed for spreading the H5N1 avian flu strain
from south-east Asia to Russia. The flu strain has caused the deaths of
about 60 people in south-east Asia, and experts fear that if the virus gains
the ability to spread easily from person to person, instead of from birds to
people, then it could turn into a global flu pandemic.
Julian Hughes, head of species conservation at the Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds, said the UK was not on the migratory path of wild birds
coming from the affected areas. But he added: "We don't see any imminent
risk but we are not complacent - we are extremely concerned."
The government has said that if its risk assessment should change, it would
seek to keep free-range status for poultry brought indoors until the crisis
passed.
However, Defra's position remains that such a crisis is unlikely. Defra
graded the risk as "very low" and said that measures to keep poultry indoors
were unnecessary: "We don't think it's proportionate to the risk."
But as some continental European countries prepare for stringent actions to
combat the potential problem, the UK may come under increased pressure to
follow suit. The Netherlands has already ordered all of its 5.5m free-range
poultry to be brought indoors. Germany has taken action to prepare for
similar moves. France has resisted taking such action but is monitoring the
situation.
Last Friday, the British Poultry Council, the British Egg Industry Council
and the National Farmers' Union wrote to the government's chief veterinary
officer to ask for a reassessment of the risk of bird flu spreading to
British flocks.
Mr Hughes rejected calls made in some parts of the world for a cull on
migratory birds as "logistically impossible - you would have to kill
everything", and said actions such as bringing domestic fowl indoors offered
a better solution.
Mr Bourns said if controls on poultry were instituted, there could be more
problems for farmers: "[Fowl] can behave a bit wildly if you shut them up
and they're not used to it."



> --
> Peter Duncanson
> UK (posting from ukba)


.

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