Danger of bird flu leads to innumerable massacre!

The British environment ministry is ready to massacre more poultry flocks after chickens tested positive for the H7 strain of bird flu in two more farms in eastern England. The slaughter comes after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced that two poultry farms around the one already affected near Dereham, Norfolk, had become infected with avian flu. The latest apparent epidemic of avian influenza in chickens has prompted the Hong Kong authorities to suspend poultry and meat imports from there.

More than 15,000 chickens face slaughter in Norfolk after the virus was discovered and Japan’s ban to import poultry is the consequence of growing concerns about the threat of avian flu. Experts are battling hard to prevent the disease from spreading and a cull of chickens at a second poultry farm affected by bird flu is underway. Preliminary results indicate the test positive for H7N3 strain, but further tests are being carried out by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency. The two free range flocks will be slaughtered on notion of an avian notifiable disease. As a precautionary measure a restricted zone has been put in place extending 1km from each of the infected premises. Officials sought to reassure members of the public yesterday that the countryside was still open for business. David Collinson, Norfolk county council's head of trading standards, said: "Every single road and footpath is open and this is nothing to do with the eggs or birds bought from any shop in or outside the zones. It does mean that vehicles passing through the restricted zone carrying poultry or captive birds should not stop within the zone. The orders advise all bird-keepers within a declared zone to maintain high standards of bio security, and any movements of poultry and other captive birds within the zone must be licensed by a veterinary inspector."
The State Veterinary Service is tracing movements and contacts, the necessary surveillance and all appropriate worker protection measures have been put in place. Workers have completed a cull of 35,000 chickens at nearby Witford Lodge Farm at Hockering, where an outbreak of the H7 strain was confirmed. A DEFRA spokesperson said that two free-range flocks will be slaughtered on suspicion of having bird flu, adding that one farm had 7 500 chickens and the other had 7 800 chickens.
Debby Reynolds, Chief Veterinary Officer said “We still can not say whether either of these two further farms are the index case, further premises may be involved. We are investigating whether there any links or movements between the two suspect farms and the confirmed infected premises. The working hypothesis remains that the most likely source of the virus is from another premises or from wild birds”
The H7 strain is much less virulent to humans than the lethal H5N1 form of the virus, which was confirmed in a dead swan in Scotland in early April, the only case so far in Britain. Scotland is to lift its surveillance zone for wild birds on Monday, almost a month after the case. The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed 113 people in nine countries since 2003. Scientists fear bird flu could become highly dangerous to humans if the virus mutates into a form easily passed on from one person to another. In 2004, Japan had four outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry between January and March, including one in Kyoto in western Japan that led to the destruction of 240,000 chickens and 20 million eggs. Several outbreaks of the less virulent H5N2 strain occurred in poultry last year on farms near Tokyo. H7 does not transmit easily from human to human. In almost all cases of human H7 infection to date, the virus, in both low and high pathogenic forms, has only caused a mild disease. Therefore at this stage this is a virus which only has extremely limited implications for human health. H7 symptoms in humans generally include flu-like illness and conjunctivitis.
The Food Standards Agency advises that avian flu does not pose a food safety risk for UK consumers. The risk of people getting avian influenza from eating poultry meat and eggs is low. People should follow some simple hygiene precautions to minimise the risk of infection. It is hard for people to catch avian influenza from birds and some simple steps can guard them against avian influenza.