Vets track spread of bird flu strain

Pat's Note: I don't think that I wish to comment about this.

Apart from the fact that later we will find out that some filthy foreigner,
preferably French, was to blame and the entire SVS should all be knighted.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2160597,00.html

The TimesMay 02, 2006


Vets track spread of bird flu strain
By Valerie Elliott

Blood samples from birds culled in Norfolk show they had the H7N3 virus for
longer than was thought


GOVERNMENT vets were checking farms in Norfolk last night after it emerged
that a bird flu virus has been present in Britain for at least a month.

The latest theory is that a free-range egg company, which kept 15,300
chickens outdoors on two farms, is now the likely source of the infection,
probably after some contact with an infected wild bird.

More than 50,000 chickens have now been culled on Norfolk Road Farm and
Mowles Manor Farm at North Tuddenham, owned by Geoffrey Dann and his son,
Simon.

Blood samples from birds on their farm showed that they had been exposed to
the H7N3 virus as long ago as four weeks.

This company is less than half a mile from Banhams chicken breeding farm at
Whitford Lodge, where 35,000 birds were culled last week after the low
pathogenic avian flu strain was confirmed in the county. Birds on the free
range unit, however, suffered only a mild form of the flu and none died from
the infection. They had to be culled because H7N3 flu is a notifiable
disease.

It is still unclear how the virus was transported from the egg farm to the
Banhams chicken farm, where it killed some 400 chickens and triggered a drop
in egg production by other birds.

Such a reaction to avian flu is expected on intensive commercial units where
there are large numbers of birds who live indoors at close quarters.

State vets have been unable to find a link between the egg and the chicken
farms. An infected wild bird, or its faeces on a worker's foot, or vehicle,
are still thought to be the most likely routes for the infection.

Farmers around the country have also been reporting suspicious signs of
sickness or a fall in egg production and the Veterinary Laboratory Agency,
in Weybridge, Surrye, is testing numerous samples.

So far, however, all tests have been negative.

Officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are
determined to ensure that the country's
£600 million-a-year chicken export trade is maintained. Ministers will today
make representations to the Japanese Embassy and Hong Kong High Commission,
in London, over their trade bans against Britain.

Japan has halted all trade in eggs, chicken and breeding birds from Britain,
and Hong Kong has banned produce from Norfolk.
Such bans are in breach of international law, however, and can be imposed
only if a highly pathogenic bird flu strain is present. So far, government
vets have found only the less virulent H7N3 strain.

International quarantine measures, such as restricting air travel from
countries with a serious influenza outbreak, would do little to halt the
spread of a pandemic, a study by British scientists has found (Mark
Henderson writes).

A strain of flu that passed easily from person to person would move around
the world more quickly than it could be detected, making airport closures
largely ineffective, according to computer simulations by the Health
Protection Agency. For restrictions on air travel from infected countries to
delay a pandemic, it would be necessary for almost all travel to be stopped
immediately as soon as the virus emerges, scientists found.

The findings, published today in the open-access journal Public Library of
Science Medicine, suggest that the costs of restricting international air
travel in a pandemic are likely to outweight the benefits.


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


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