Bird Flu Controls

Pat's Note: On the assumption that this report is accurate, it is also very
typical of the State Veterinary Service policy.

It transfers power to a bunch of vets, who may then use their discretion to
favour their friends and disadvantage anyone they disapprove of.

You have to have honest capable people to operate discretionary policies
during an epidemic, not a bunch of discredited thugs operating crude
protection rackets.

Human lives may be at risk. You can't allow the State Veterinary Service to
licence their grubby associates to make decisions that could impact on human
health.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2091456,00.html

March 18, 2006

Bird flu plan 'may spread virus'
By Dominic Kennedy

British measures to deal with an outbreak have been attacked as likely to
promote wider infection


FARMERS will be free to move birds out of areas hit by avian flu, with
permission from a vet, under British plans to deal with an outbreak of the
disease.

Britain successfully urged its European partners to agree reforms aimed at
helping the poultry and game bird industries to survive the arrival of the
virus. Farmers, the countryside lobby and veterinary surgeons have broadly
welcomed an approach promoted by the Government as flexible, based on risk
assessment and helping to keep rural Britain open for business.

The Times has learnt that Britain successfully proposed easier movement of
birds at a crunch European Commission committee meeting last month agreeing
a common response to bird flu. Supporters of organic and sustainable farming
yesterday accused ministers of a "daft" change designed to help trade which
risked repeating the swift spread of foot-and-mouth throughout Britain.

If bird flu is found in poultry, a series of exclusion zones for protection
and surveillance will be thrown around the affected farm. Under old rules,
the movement of birds out of these areas was restricted to poultry for
immediate slaughter.

Under Britain's EU presidency, Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary,
chaired a Council of Ministers meeting last December which agreed to ease
bird movements.

When experts met to discuss avian flu in Brussels last month, Britain won
unanimous backing for its proposal to put these opt-outs into effect.
Europe's leaders are haunted by the outbreak of bird flu in the Netherlands
in 2003, which resulted in 31 million birds being slaughtered and heavy
financial losses.

A Commission spokesman said: "Rule changes were requested by a number of
member states, including France and the United Kingdom, to reflect their
farming practices."

Europe agreed that ready-to-lay pullets, turkeys for fattening and other
poultry or farmed feathered game could be moved out of surveillance zones 15
days after an outbreak. A vet would have to give approval and the birds
would need to be kept under surveillance, away from other poultry.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in a consultation
letter, said that it was keen to introduce the new regime swiftly. "It
offers us more scope for control of disease based on risk assessment of the
actual situation faced at the time and is therefore more permissive than the
previous Community legislation that it replaces.

"Because we wish to have these up-to-date provisions in place so we can make
use of the flexibility they provide, we are looking to have the legislation
in place as soon as possible."

In an assessment of the impact of the rules, Defra highlights the benefits
to the poultry industry, which farms 137 million birds, and the game
industry which keeps 30 million.

The National Farmers' Union, which had been urging freer movement of birds,
welcomed the reforms.

"Within the poultry industry, we need to keep movements going otherwise it
would just collapse overnight," a spokeswoman said.

But Richard Sanders, policy researcher at Elm Farm, which promotes green
farming, said that restrictions on movements were vital. "It doesn't seem to
be particularly sensible to be talking about a more lax regime," he said.
"Everything should be done to be careful."



Regards
Pat Gardiner
www.go-self-sufficient.com


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Relevant Pages

  • Bird Flu - Guardian Report
    ... wild birds are spreading the deadly H5N1 virus that's ... If you normally make a point of buying free-range poultry and eggs, ... farms of China and south-east Asia. ...
    (uk.business.agriculture)
  • So whos really to blame for bird flu? and why put yourselves at risk!
    ... So who's really to blame for bird flu? ... wild birds are spreading the deadly H5N1 virus ... that's wiping out poultry worldwide. ...
    (sci.agriculture.poultry)
  • China and Vietnam Report Flu Outbreaks
    ... warning that migratory birds from Europe and Asia could carry the virus ... The virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu has devastated Asia's poultry ... China's latest outbreak - the fourth in three weeks in the world's most ... Hiroko Tabuchi in Tokyo, Japan, contributed to this report. ...
    (soc.culture.cambodia)
  • Re: Brooding hens that wont let me near the eggs
    ... But surely you must know that domestic birds (which are derived as ... "Poultry respond physiologically to cold temperatures by mainly by ... increasing internal metabolic rate to keep their body temperature ... heat stress affects them by depressing weight ...
    (sci.agriculture.poultry)
  • Re: update - AI politics in Germany
    ... Sounds promising, unfortunately the Dutch ... place to prevent an outbreak of bird flu in the country's poultry stock. ... chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and other birds indoors to avoid contact ... Asia where bird flu has broken out. ...
    (sci.agriculture.poultry)