Farmers told to plan for bird flu

BBC | February 20 2006

Poultry farmers are being told to plan how they can move their birds inside in the event that avian flu hits the UK.

While it was not inevitable the virus would arrive, the risk had increased, Tony Blair's spokesman said.

EU farm ministers are due to meet in Brussels to discuss the spread of the virus, which has now reached France.

UK ministers said it was still not necessary to lock up Britain's 20 million free-range poultry, despite some experts backing it.

The National Farmers' Union said such a move would be a "massive over-reaction".

There are an estimated 200 million birds on farms across the UK and between 10 and 15% are free-range.

Current British policy is that birds would only be ordered inside if the disease was found in the UK.

That possibility has moved a step closer with the news that France has confirmed its first case of the deadly H5N1 virus.

Tony Blair's official spokesman said: "It is common sense that as the incidents of bird flu on the continent geographically get closer, so the level of concern increases.

"We recognise that, and that is why Defra is issuing new guidance today telling poultry farmers that they should prepare plans to bring their flocks in if that is necessary.

"It is still not inevitable that bird flu will come to the UK, but clearly the risk must be higher today than it was."

A Defra spokesman said the original guidance to poultry farmers was being repeated, rather than any new advice being issued.

NFU president Tim Bennett said his union was sure poultry producers would be ready to get birds indoors at short notice once it was needed.

Mr Bennett urged shoppers not to stop buying and eating British chicken, which will remain safe to eat.

Professor Neil Ferguson, a mathematical biologist from Imperial College London, thinks the government response is right because solutions must be long-term.

He said the H5N1 virus could be endemic in wild bird populations in Western Europe for decades.

Dead swans

EU farm ministers are due to debate the introduction of a preventive vaccination against bird flu.

But the government has said this would be hugely expensive and could be confusing because it could only prevent symptoms in birds, not the disease itself.

Vets are testing nine dead swans for signs of infection, after reports from the public.

Two each were from Bury St Edmunds, Winchester and Preston, while individual birds were found in Shrewsbury, Thirsk and Hertfordshire.

By law, anyone with 50 or more birds has until 28 February to register on the Great Britain Poultry Register.

Peter Bradnock, the chief executive of the British Poultry Council, told the BBC his industry was concerned but well-prepared.

In the event of the virus spreading to a UK poultry farm, the disease would be spotted quickly, the farm isolated and hopefully the infection contained, he said.

The H5N1 strain has killed dozens of people in Asia, the vast majority following very close contact with sick birds.

But some scientists fear it could mutate so that it could be passed easily from person to person.

John Oxford, a professor of virology, said the virus was mutating fast and the likelihood of a human avian flu pandemic was "high and within a span of, say, 18 months".

Last modified February 20, 2006