Re: Vets track spread of bird flu strain

On 1 May 2006 21:10:19 -0700, "Burkie" <Burkie50@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Pat: Get real, please!

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

400 chickens out of 35,000. Stick it in your calculator. Just
assuming a drop in egg numbers in one day of some 30 dozen eggs or so
is not call for screaming about some G.D. Flu Pandemic.

Some idiots taking care of the chickens could have caused such an egg
drop.....on purpose.

The cause needs to be identified and eliminated.

You do have some real idiots in your veterinary services ...they seem
not to have the ability to recognize that animals are not
machines.....or preprogrammed, micro-chipped individuals expected to
perform as robots....to satisfy some stupid number evaluator who says,
"Whoa."

Get real.

Jeezus.

I suspect that the poultry kept in sheds throughout their lives are very
close to being performing robots. The varieties will have been carefully
chosen to yield consistent performance and results. I understand that in
some cases the profit margins are very small. That would make the
keepers very sensitive to changes that could adversely affect the
commercial value of the birds.

The first case of H7N3 in Norfolk was found precisely because poultry
keepers and a vet had observed comparatively minor changes in the
behaviour of the birds.

http://new.edp24.co.uk/search/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&itemid=NOED28%20Apr%202006%2015:50:51:247&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=search
or http://tinyurl.com/pvfq9

Birds not dying around us, says vet
KATHRYN CROSS
28 April 2006 15:50
The Norfolk vet who reported the outbreak of suspected
bird flu at North Tuddenham told the EDP today of the
moment he decided Defra should be called in.

Stephen Lister, a partner in the dedicated poultry practice
Crowshall Veterinary Services of Attleborough, has been
the consultant to Banham Poultry for the past 15 years and
was first notified of a problem with the Whitford Lodge
flock last weekend.

"The company called me out because the flock was not
looking quite right, egg production had dropped and food
consumption had also dropped," he said.

"It is not unusual to be called out and there was nothing
suspicious at that stage. The birds just looked dull but they
were not sick and dying around us so we decided to keep
up our observation, keep them comfortable and try to
encourage them to eat and drink.

"We were initially looking for other diseases but the egg
production did not recover and tests did not reveal
anything positive."

By Tuesday evening the birds were getting no better so Mr
Lister, who reported the country's only previous bird flu
outbreak in 1992 in turkeys at Attlebridge, decided to call
in Defra.

He said: "I would not have reported it if I did not have
some suspicions because I knew that as soon as it was
reported the firm would be put under restrictions and
nobody wants that to happen unnecessarily. Defra did its
tests on Wednesday and by the afternoon suspected bird
flu.

"It was a very different case to the 1992 outbreak. That
was the H5 virus and the mortality was extremely high so
there was a very strong indication that birds were sick and
we were suspicious early on.

"In this case the birds simply looked dull and did not want
to eat. They can go off colour for a number of reasons
through other viruses or bacterial infections which are not
notifiable because there is no risk to human health and the
birds tend to bounce back."
...
"My personal view of how we deal with bird flu is to have
very high vigilance, identify the infected flock quickly,
isolate the farm and kill infected flocks very quickly," he
said.
...
--
Peter Duncanson
UK (posting from ukba)
.