Bird Flu

[laurab]

Well I'm sure we have all heard the news tonight; lets hope it is not as bad as first thought :(

[kenny]

hi laura
i saw it but i dare not mention it,i was just hoping it wasn`t true but i suppose it was inevitable that it was going to happen it was just a matter of when :neutral:

ken

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello Laura and Ken,

I was made aware of the bad news due to a text message from a friend in Norwich earlier tonight, although I knew it was a case of when, and not if, we were to be added to the list of Countries reporting cases of Bird/Avian Flu, it still came as a huge shock to me.:shock:

I just hope it doesn't turn out to be the real deal in the form of what we have dreaded the most!!
Because if it does then we can kiss goodbye to any Bird Sales in the UK for at least a year.:-(

I can already hear the AR chearing over what must have come as a God Send to their cause in killing our hobby.:mad:

Paul.

[kenny]

hi all
just seen the news .the swan in scotland has tested positive for the h5N1 virus it just had to be didn`t it now any one who keeps birds will be vandalised as they will automatically see us as carriers because of their ignorance

ken

[chris]

looking on the bright side, bird flu still isn't in the country as we're in England and it's in Scotland. hopefully it will be contained sucessfully but i won't hold my breath. there's going to be far more pressure on the government now for vaccination and i know all my birds will be jabbed first chance i get

Chris

[kenny]

hi chris
so you are relying on the government to get the dosage right,whats to stop them from overdosing everybodys birds to stop the spread,i know i am a cynic but i hate tony blair and all his little goblins

ken

[vixen]

Hi all they have been talking about the three seagulls which have been found about 5 miles away from me they are being tested its all over the local news and all the papers.that puts us in the observation zone we can't put our water fowl under cover we have them spread over about an acre of land we will have to wait and see.:-( :-(

[Strawblady2000]

Boy, I'm looking forward to people thinking all birds have "the plague", arent you????

Scary, that it really is a matter of when, not if.

With all of the travel that goes on, I can see what will happen if it mutates.

All I can say is...

This really sucks.

[kenny]

hi nikki
do you have a website for your aviary

ken

[kenny]

hi all
"I don't think that one dead swan is a crisis," the government's chief science adviser, David King (http://g.msn.co.uk/UK7/135317.4?http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?FORM=SRHBDY&q=David King&&HL=keywordInt), told BBC (http://g.msn.co.uk/UK7/135317.4?http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?FORM=SRHBDY&q=BBC &&HL=keywordInt)radio.
"I think what it meant was we immediately had to step up our surveillance procedures, we had to see that animal movements were restricted, and we had to make sure all of our reactions were done in the proper and reasonably constrained way.
Officials have said the threat to humans is remote, despite the discovery of the deadly H5N1 strain in the partially eaten carcass of a Mute swan, found late on March 29 in Cellardyke harbour in eastern Scotland.
Since the swan was found, 14 other birds, including 12 swans, have been tested, with results yet to be announced.
"The risk of this particular virus passing into humans is extremely low. It's unlikely to occur unless there is any very close contact between a diseased bird and an individual," Scotland's chief medical officer Harry Burns (http://g.msn.co.uk/UK7/135317.4?http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?FORM=SRHBDY&q=Harry Burns&&HL=keywordInt) said on Thursday.
"There is a better chance of a person winning the national lottery than catching bird flu in the U.K. today," said Jim Robertson (http://g.msn.co.uk/UK7/135317.4?http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?FORM=SRHBDY&q=Jim Robertson&&HL=keywordInt), a virologist from the National Institute (http://g.msn.co.uk/UK7/135317.4?http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?FORM=SRHBDY&q=National Institute&&HL=keywordInt) for Biological Standards (http://g.msn.co.uk/UK7/135317.4?http://search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?FORM=SRHBDY&q=Biological Standards&&HL=keywordInt) and Control.

ken

[Strawblady2000]

hi nikki
do you have a website for your aviary

ken

no, Ken, not yet.

Are you kidding, lol...I had to ask for help posting pics here!


LMAO!!!!!!

I would like to have one. I'm pretty sure I can do it, but I jist need hubby to watch the kids so I can focus on it without having to worry about them getting into mischief. When I do get to do it, I'd like to fill it with so much info...a bit anal retentive on compiling references, lol.

And, I'll tell you a little secret, lol...All I have right now is 1 room dedicated to them. 3 large flights and 2 stands of 30 inch breeder cages. At first, I started the "aviary just for tax purposes. Then, the chicks kept coming, lol. So, for now, the name is bigger than the operation.

I have plans for a large aviary, but it is "under mental construction", lol. We lease our home, so I cant do anything "permanent" just yet.

[PAUL HEARN]

Hello all,

We all know the 'single' HN51 case in Scotland is very far from the proposed Pandemic from so called Experts???:? that was going to wipe out the entire Planet.

But the reaction from the gullible idiots I have had to deal with since the news of this 'single' case is typical of a nation who believe that the end is nigh due to media hype.:x

Paul.:roll:

[kenny]

hi paul
you are so right mate.here`s another bunch of idiots.
Minister slams supermarket over Bird Flu response
07/04/2006 - 15:56:57

A leading supermarket chain was criticised as irresponsible by the Scottish environment minister today over its response to the bird flu alert.

Ross Finnie said he was very concerned about the British public being scared off eating Scottish chickens and eggs after Waitrose stated that it did not stock poultry items from north of the border.

The supermarket, part of the John Lewis Partnership, said it was simply responding to a request about the sourcing of its goods and in no way meant to imply that the illness was food-borne.

But Mr Finnie took the opportunity to reiterate that it is completely safe to eat Scottish poultry products.

Responding to an interview question, he told Scottish Television’s Scotland Today: “I’m very concerned about that … for a supermarket to imply that there was a risk from buying Scottish produce was, in my view, irresponsible.”

Waitrose, which has 174 stores in England and Wales, said its response to media questioning had been misinterpreted.

“Bird flu is not a food-borne illness and our customers understand this,” said a spokeswoman for the chain.

The company is planning to open its first Scottish stores in the summer and said that it would be sourcing products locally, as it does for branches in the south.

The spokeswoman said: “Regional and local sourcing is at the heart of our offer and we are actively looking to source from Scotland in the run-up to opening two branches in Edinburgh in June and in fact have already sourced an egg supplier in Scotland.”

Waitrose said all its fresh poultry came from UK farms and it was in a “strong position” to respond to any precautionary advice from Defra.
ken:shock:

[Strawblady2000]

Far fetched, but it reminds me of when AIDS first "came out".

People thought you could get it from ONLY homosexuals...then they thought everything could give it to you. Then governments spent millions on education and research. Now, people are more educated, although in many countries, it is still rampant.

Difference is that no one freaked out when it the form of AIDS hadnt mutated to be transmittable to humans. Hell, no one even knew about it.

But, I guess to be prepared is half the battle. Too bad there is nothing or no one to discern between fact from fiction (aside from our beloved Kenny :))

[kenny]

hi nikki
this story is really true.............i spent a bit of time in hospital back in the 80s when little was known of aids ,and we had a guy on the same ward as us who was just gay ......thats all no hiv no aids just gay and all the ignorant people would not sleep on the same side of the ward as him! if he came in one room they walked out en mass and the worst thing they would not even eat their meals at the same table i felt very sorry for him as it was just through total ignorance............this bird flu thing will bring out the same nutballs as then

ken

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Ken,

That is a very sad story mate,:( it is terrible how the Human Race behaves at times, it is cases like this that lead to people taking their own lives through mindless discrimination.:mad:

Paul.

[kenny]

hi all
what kind of nutters are they in scotland that are dumping all there chickens on the road side from possible infected areas.what goes through their minds are they totally deranged do they think that will stop the spread of bird flu...i dont think so with any luck they will be the first people to get it

ken:twisted:

[kenny]

hi all
something amusing for the bank holiday weekend


H5N1: virulent outbreaks of bird flu phobia are on the horizon

Notebook by Mick Hume
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/trans.gifFIRST THE GOOD news for Good Friday. It is safe to enjoy your Easter roast chicken. Indeed it would be safe to eat roast swan, were it not still illegal to poach the Queen’s birds.
Even if bird flu does spread in Britain, you could not catch it from eating infected chicken — unless you like your white meat red raw. The chances of anybody here falling ill from bird flu will be, according to the Government’s Chief Scientist, 100 million to one. And there is no sign anywhere in the world of the feared pandemic-causing strain of H5N1 that could pass easily between humans.
NI_MPU('middle');Now, before we count our chickens, for the bad news. The virulent new strain of official bird flu phobia is here to stay. Bird flu phobia is separate from avian flu itself and pays no heed to the science of virology. It infects the body politic, spread by what I once heard a top new Labour adviser boastfully describe as the Government’s policy of “organised paranoia”.
The scientific watch for a possible bird flu outbreak centres on the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in the little town of New Haw, Surrey, where I grew up. I worked there one summer as a casual farmhand. “The Research”, as locals called the lab, was a fortress of cool-headed clinical inquiry. The only headless chickens in evidence were the 200 we casuals were told to slaughter with our bare hands one afternoon.
The epicentre of the outbreak of official bird flu phobia lies elsewhere, in government offices pursuing the policy of organised paranoia, a phrase coined by that Downing Street adviser at the time of the 2003 Sars scare. The idea is that the Government will pre-empt future panics over risks to public health by planning for all manner of worst-case “what if?” scenarios. In practice, however, precautionary doom-mongering often has the opposite effect. So it has proved with official bird flu phobia. The calming messages from sensible spokesmen have been undermined by sensational revelations about the Government’s plans for a devastating human pandemic, from armed police escorts for medical staff to “plague pit”-style mass graves. Meanwhile, the only criticism from opposition parties seems to be that Whitehall is still not doing enough to prepare for the “what if?” apocalypse. No sooner had Sir David “Don’t Panic!” King, the Government Chief Scientist, reassured us at the weekend about the “very low” chance of a human outbreak, than a letter from Sir Liam “We’re Doomed” Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, revealed plans to close all schools if and when that outbreak occurs, supposedly to limit the predicted death toll to 50,000 rather than 100,000 children. Just the thing to jolly up the holidays.


ken

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Ken,

The sad facts are that the very same so called 'experts' who wanted to see themselves on TV and predicted the Bird Flu Pandemic months ago, have now completely u-turned in their beliefs now that the H5N1 Virus has washed up on our shores.
Unfortunately their recent words intended in calming the UK's public from panicking are far too late, coming after many months of scaremongering in order to raise their own profiles in the Scientific World.:mad:

As soon as the bad news broke of the confirmed case of H5N1, I tried to calm the panicked views of the people I work with by telling them that the infected Swan was most likely to have washed up on our UK shores after becoming infected elsewhere, with the most likely explanation being that the infected Bird was migrating from a Country already infected with the Virus.

The very same evening I heard that the infected Swan was a residential Mute Swan.

So that put paid to my argument in attempting to calm the panic from the people I know and work with, so try to imagine how I felt a few days later when I heard that the infected and decomposing Swan was in fact minus it's head.:shock:

How the hell did the authorities dealing with this case identify the Swan as a Mute when the rotting carcass didn't even have a head??:mad:

While I'm trying my best to convince people around me that the threat of H5N1 is a very minimal one, the Government bodies who are supposed to protect the nation are failing in getting their information right.

But anyway, if this Virus was to mutate into one that passes from Human to Human, then why hasn't it happened in Asia where people and Animals live together in huge concentrations??

The fact is that the Animal Rights activists are attempting to use the Virus to their benefit in banning the importation of Foreign Birds, whether they are successful in doing this depends on how we as Birdkeepers/breeders come back in our defence?

Paul.

[kenny]

hi paul
it gets worse mate take a look at this th nutters are out again.


Swan shot over 'bird flu fears'

A healthy swan which was shot at least nine times in the chest may have been targeted because of concerns over bird flu, wildlife rescuers said.
The badly bleeding swan, which was found struggling to get to a river at Dinton, Wiltshire, had to be put down.
Philip Groombridge, from Salisbury Wildlife Rescue, believes it was shot out of the sky.
"People are frightened of swans landing on their land with the bird flu, people are shooting at everything," he said.






ken

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Ken,

This is a very sad case of people overreacting before knowing the full facts.:x

I fear that this story is just the tip of the iceberg, and again I blame the Media for the scaremongering resulting in a sad case such as this.:x

If the Media had blamed any other Bird Species for the spread of the Virus then we could be reading about Blue Tits being shot from Bird tables?:roll:

Sadly the Human race is easily panicked into believing that they are threatened by something and they react by trying to destroy the source of the threat before learning the true facts.

I wouldn't be surprised to read of more cases of Swans killed through the ignorance of the general public before the true facts are known.:x

The facts are as follows, the UK has yet to be confirmed to have an outbreak of the H5N1 Virus, the single case identified on UK shores was in fact a migratory headless Whooper Swan and not a native Mute Swan.

The threat to UK Poultry stocks is extremely minimal, and the threat to collections of other Birds is far less!!

The threat of becoming infected with a Human to Human case of Bird Flu is far less likely than the likelyhood of catching the Common Cold.
But because I don't have letters after my name and I don't profess myself as an expert on Viruses the public will dismiss my views.

Paul.

[kenny]

hi paul
its all ignorance fuelled by more ignorance.and if defra will not do anything how are we supposed to win against bird flu


'Bird flu' anger as dead swan is left to rot by officials
By Jo Rostron
A LEEDS walker was left stunned after reporting a dead swan to Defra only to be told: "We can't get it because we don't have specialist equipment."
The decaying bird was found near a path along the River Aire at Methley by Steven Lewis. He told the YEP: "I was so shocked that in the current climate, where there's all this anxiety about bird flu, Defra told me they knew about this dead swan but they could not retrieve it.
"It had obviously been there a while and I was standing right over it so I don't know why they said they needed specialist equipment."
A spokesman for Defra said dead birds are sometimes left longer for health and safety reasons.
Mr Lewis, 48, of Rothwell was walking his dog along the riverside path when he came across the carcass on Sunday.
"My dog had shot off and wouldn't come back so I had to go down and find what it was doing.
"I was stood over this swan, I dragged my dog off and if I was of that mindset, I could have got a bag and dealt with it straight away. So I was amazed when Defra said they could not do anything about it.
"The woman I spoke to said 'we have not got specialist equipment so we cannot retrieve it for health and safety'. I couldn't understand it!"
A Defra spokesman said that out of 3,000 birds tested since October, across the UK, only one has tested positive for bird flu.
"We do ask everyone to report suspicious bird deaths. If occasionally a bird is left longer than normal it would be due to the fact of health and safety because obviously we need to make sure it's safe for staff to pick it up especially if it's in a difficult position and they will need to get specialist equipment to do that."
The spokesman said they did not comment on individual cases.


be afraid be very afraid this country dissapoints me
ken:(

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Ken,

Although I seriously doubt that any dead Mute Swan found in the UK will have died from H5N1, it doesn't instill any confidence in the public if they are told by DEFRA that they cannot collect a Swan carcass due to lack of equipment.:-(

My personal view is that DEFRA staff are themselves far too scared for their own safety by collecting material that may contain the Virus,:roll: this says one thing to me, DEFRA are way out of their depth in educating their own staff of the risk of contracting the Virus through collecting dead Mute Swans.:-x

Personally I wouldn't have a problem in bagging up a dead Mute Swan, or any other Bird for that matter if it means putting the publics minds at rest regarding the Bird Flu Virus in the UK.

DEFRA seriously needs to get it's act together, not to protect us from H5N1, but to protect the UK's public from the fear of the Virus shoved down their throats by the Media.

Paul.:x

[kenny]

hi paul
i dont think anyone who genuinly cares about the environment and the risk of bird flu,would mind bagging up a dead swan.ithink that defra are just a lazy bunch and envirinmental health lets face it it the past when we have had foot and mouth we have always been the last country to get the ball rolling in terms of stemming deseases or the spread of them

ken

[kenny]

hi all
i apologise now to our american members as this in no way is meant as an attack on our us freinds but this kind of stupid scaremongering we do not need

Lately, there isn't a day that goes by where we don't here something about the bird flu that may, or may not, be passed along to humans. Not to get too freaky, but experts are saying that a worst case scenario would be 20 million Americans affected, 2 million dead, schools and businesses shutdown to prevent the spread of the disease. So, you would think that the networks' entertainment divisions would give us something light and fluffy to keep our minds off of this fact.
Um, apparently not.
Disney-owned ABC, who gave us the nuclear war disaster movie The Day After back in the 1980's, will air Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America during the May sweeps period. The movie will star Stacy Keach, Joely Richardson, Ann Cusack and Justine Machado, and will ask the question 'What if bird flu was transmitted to humans in America?'. The producers say they made the movie because of its topicality.
Personally, I'll be skipping this movie and look for some more gentle fare, like 10.5:Apocalypse on NBC.

ken:roll:

[Strawblady2000]

Wow.

I had no idea, as we've not seen previews for this TV movie as of yet.

Oddly enough, we dont hear much about the bird flu here. Yes, it is talked about...occasionally, when a new case turns up in Europe or Asia. But it is a brief 10 second bit on the news, usually squeezed in between segments on the price of gasoline and the sportscast.

Some take it seriously, and I honestly wish people were more aware of it...but to make a movie is a bad idea, especially now. Oprah did an excellent special on it...and it was actually informative. No hysterical assumptions...just fact-based knowledge for protecting oneself and being prepared...being proactive as opposed to reactive.

HBO did a great movie called And the Band Played On back in the 90's...an after-the-fact acocount of the AIDS epidemic's beginning. This was a fantastic movie that did NOT incite paranoia and play upon ignorance. I can see where this new movie could have more harm in it than information in it.

Honestly, as history shows us, it isnt a matter of IF the flu mutates, but WHEN...and inciting mass panic among ignorance stricken citizens isnt going to help any.

No offense taken at all by this American, lol.

Oh, and I must mention...MY OWN HUSBAND had a bit of nonsensical hysteria...I had a sick bird last week...a simple bacterial infection...cleared up fine with meds. Well, Saturday night, I fell VERY ill with sudden flu-like symptoms that lasted for a few days. He FREAKED out, saying he was worried because I had a sick bird, lol...then he realized (as well as me realizing, of course) it was a bad Easter Egg I ate on Saturday.

<gag>

Gotta love 'em

[kenny]

hi nikki
thats what i am hear for to be the first with the bird news i try and keep ahead of it as its notmuch fun reading stuff that you have already seen .i was talking last week of my mother in law telling us my dog would get bird flu drinking out of the bird bath you cant make stuff like that up:-D :roll:

ken

[kenny]

hi all
some more bird flu news

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is to slaughter 35,000 chickens after bird flu was found among dead birds on a farm in one of the country's biggest poultry farming areas, the government said on Wednesday.
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) spokesman said the cull of all the birds on the farm in eastern England would take place as a precautionary measure.
"The preliminary test results show that it is likely to be the H7 strain of avian influenza and not H5N1," DEFRA said in a statement. The feared H5N1 strain has killed more than 100 people since late 2003, most of them in Asia.
The outbreak is on a farm near the market town of Dereham, in the eastern county of Norfolk, an agricultural centre which is home to some of Europe's biggest poultry farms.
An outbreak of the H7N7 bird flu strain in the Netherlands in 2003 led to the culling of 30 million birds, about a third of all Dutch poultry at a cost of hundreds of millions of euros.
A veterinarian working on an infected Dutch farm caught the disease and later died of pneumonia. It infected more than 80 people in total.
"Further tests are being carried out to determine the strain of the virus and more will be known tomorrow (Thursday)," the government said in a statement. "As a precautionary measure, birds on the premises will be slaughtered."
Earlier this month, the government confirmed its first case of H5N1 bird flu in a wild bird when a dead swan was found in eastern Scotland.
The swan was the only wild bird so far found in Britain to have the H5N1 virus, which has led to the death and culling of 200 million birds since around the world since late 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.
Both highly pathogenic and low pathogenic avian influenzas can infect humans but rarely do so. H5N1 is the bird flu strain which poses the biggest threat to public health, although cases of human infection remain relatively infrequent.


ken

[Waxbillman]

very bad news, so much deaths, 35,000 tragic. i only hope it doesn't spread

Matthew

[kenny]

hi matt
yeah a tragic waste i am only glad that its not the h5n1 virus i know it doesn`t say exactly where it is but i bet its somwhere bootiful .how did you think you did in your exams mate


ken