down with murder inc

Foot And Mouth Released In Agraterrorism Attack On UK?

Foot and mouth- psychological warfare...?

remember this or be doomed to repeat it...

Flashback 2001: The great foot-and-mouth myths

May 5, 2001 The Independent (London) by Chris Blackhurst
Did it begin:
a) on a pig farm in Northumberland;
b) as a result of a dodgy Chinese takeaway;
or c) because of a break-in at Porton Down?
As Tony Blair declares the foot-and-mouth crisis nearly over, Chris Blackhurst tiptoes through the slurry of Britain's greatest farming disaster. Nearly three months ago, a vet at an abattoir in Essex ran a routine check on pigs from Buckinghamshire and the Isle of Wight. Alarmed by what he found, he ordered an examination of all the farms that had sent pigs to the slaughterhouse in the last few days. The checks revealed that the Buckinghamshire and Isle of Wight animals had picked up foot-and-mouth from pigs from a farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall in Northumberland.

So began what has become one of the greatest crises to hit Britain's farming and tourism industries - a crisis that, some would say, has badly damaged the nation's standing in the eyes of the rest of the world. (Britain is suffering from a collective nervous breakdown, was the verdict of one French magazine.)

It is an infection that, despite the confident assertion by the Prime Minister this week that Britain is on the "home straight" in combating the disease, still rages in parts of the countryside - in North Cumbria and Devon. Fields and pens lie empty, hotels and boarding houses are still deserted, many footpaths remain closed, 2.5 million animals have been culled, millions of pounds have been paid out in compensation.

Despite Tony Blair's confidence, Britain is still in the grip of a virus that rarely kills the animals it infects and in some parts of the world is regarded almost as a fact of daily life. This Bank Holiday weekend sees one of the year's great escapes, when families head for the coast, the countryside, anywhere to avoid their bleak urban surroundings. This year, as at Easter, many of them will choose to turn their backs on nature and stay put. Why? Who is to blame for this fiasco, for turning our green and pleasant land into a no-go zone? Since the crisis began we have been subjected to a deluge of ministry briefings, stories, facts and numbers, until it is hard to separate fact from fiction, truth from myth. Here, we tiptoe through the slurry that is the start of the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak.

It began in Bobby Waugh's pig farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall

Yes, said the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff). No, say plenty of people involved in farming who point to lots of evidence that it started earlier, elsewhere, probably in sheep. Mr Waugh's pigs had foot-and -mouth, of that there is no doubt - Mr Waugh himself says that they were in a terrible state by the time they came to be slaughtered.

But the condition of Mr Waugh's pigs in mid-February does not explain how at least two shipments of sheep in January from Brecon and Ross-on- Wye to France bore foot-and-mouth antibodies before the outbreak officially began. Maff suggests it is possible the (documented) French tests produced a false result - possible but unlikely, and heavily denied by the French.

It was the Chinese wot did it

Maff officials suggested "off the record" that Mr Waugh's pigs contracted the virus from eating swill made from contaminated meat discarded from Chinese restaurants.

The swill was cooked by Mr Waugh's neighbour, Jimmy Brown, then transferred to his farm at Burnside. Mr Brown's own pigs did not develop foot-and- mouth. They were destroyed on Maff's orders because they were close to the infected farm at Burnside.

Almost unnoticed, during the media furore over the "Sophie Wessex Tapes", Mr Brown - that's Nick Brown, the Agriculture Secretary, not Jimmy, the pig farmer - shifted the Ministry's stance on "the Chinese connection", saying the source of the infection had not been "positively identified" and officials were still investigating. This was quite at odds with the original position when newspapers were being encouraged by Maff to focus on illegally imported meat intended for sweet and sour and chow mein in Newcastle's numerous Oriental takeaways but ending up in Burnside's pigs.

From pigs to sheep on the wind

The Government's Animal Health Laboratory at Pirbright, Surrey told Mr Waugh that his pigs had been carrying the virus for 12 days. This would put the date of their infection at 12 February.

According to the Maff chronology, on 13 February, diseased sheep from Ponteland, five miles from Burnside, went to Hexham market where they mixed with other sheep and from there to Longtown market, where they mixed with others, thus spawning the epidemic. This would mean that Mr Waugh's pigs, which were kept inside farm buildings, had infected the Ponteland sheep within 24 hours of catching the virus. Ponteland is north-east of Heddon. The weather forecast for 12 February shows the wind was a north- westerly. So, if the pigs did infect the sheep that day in a wind-borne plume of vapour as Maff has suggested, the virus must have travelled against the wind.

More holes in the pig theory

Mr Waugh's pigs arrived at the Essex abattoir on 15 February. They were checked and killed on 16 February. In-between, they were in close proximity to the pigs from Buckinghamshire and the Isle of Wight. Those pigs picked up foot-and-mouth in that short, less than 24-hour, period. Soon they were displaying the symptoms of foot-and -mouth - enough to alarm a vet who ordered a check of all the farms that supplied the slaughterhouse. Yet, according to the Maff chronology, Mr Waugh's pigs had been harbouring the disease for some time without displaying symptoms (the same abattoir vet who discovered foot- and-mouth in the Buckinghamshire and Isle of Wight porkers had previously cleared the Burnside pigs). Go figure.

Sheep tales

According to Maff, the disease spread nationally and rapidly this time - as opposed to the last major outbreak in 1967, when it was more or less confined to one area - because a network of sheep dealers carried the virus up and down the highways and by-ways.

Doubtless, dealers were responsible for its spread, but what if the disease was present in sheep before it reached Mr Waugh's pigs? Farmers in Dumfries and Galloway in January were noticing a high incidence of ewes aborting their lambs - one of the classic symptoms of foot-and-mouth in sheep. Otherwise, sheep can hide the signs of infection (unlike cattle and pigs). One other visible symptom in sheep is blistering feet, but in the wettest winter on record, with a greater prevalence of foot rot than normal, spotting the more sinister complaint may have been difficult.

Thank goodness for Stuart Renton

Ever since the outbreak started, all official comment has been tightly restricted to Government ministers, ministry press officers and Professor David King, Maff's chief scientist. Last weekend, Dr Stuart Renton, a ministry vet in Newcastle, broke ranks to say that he and his colleagues had come across old foot-and-mouth sores indicating the disease was present in sheep before the official Heddon kick -off.

"Long-standing foot-and-mouth lesions are being found in sheep nationally, indicating the disease was probably present before the initial outbreak in Heddon," said Dr Renton. "We are still getting pockets of infection in sheep which we cannot trace back to Heddon."

Following Dr Renton's remarks, Maff shifted its stance - again. Not only was Chinese food off the blame menu, but a ministry spokeswoman claimed it had never said the epidemic started at Mr Waugh's. "We only said it was the likely source and were not pointing fingers."

Mr Waugh is the subject of an exhaustive, intensive police inquiry

There have been repeated claims that Mr Waugh is the subject of a major police investigation. So far, he ain't. He has seen the police - but only to discuss improving his security against animal rights campaigners.

It was all a terrible surprise

In early February, officials contacted a timber merchant in Stafford inquiring about the availability of railway sleepers for funeral pyres for foot-and-mouth infected carcasses. The last time Maff asked about sleepers was in 1967 during the last major outbreak.

When challenged about this in the Commons, Nick Brown said the business of "purchases" of sleepers was a "red herring". Curiously, Mr Brown had changed "inquiries" to "purchases". Nobody said sleepers had been bought, merely that Maff asked if they were available for sale.

Other reports have claimed Maff was trying to source straw, bottles for disinfectant, even waterproof trousers before the outbreak. Hotels in the north are alleged to have received advance block-bookings for Maff officials. While Mr Brown has been contemptuous of these reports, dismissing them as "urban myths", his officials have tried to explain them away as "contingency planning". This explanation has provoked wry smiles in farming quarters because there was absolutely no evidence of Maff having a plan when the crisis struck. Despite a detailed report into the 1967 epidemic and the lessons to be learned, Maff gave the impression of making up its 2001 response on the hoof.

Get insured

In January this year, Maff warned farmers to take out higher insurance to protect their businesses against outbreaks of diseases. Despite no major occurrence in Britain since 1967, oddly foot and mouth was the first mentioned disease.

Animal rights scored a big one

It goes like this: a government laboratory at Pirbright or Porton Down (depending on who you talk to) was broken into and a phial of virus stolen. This was then fed to Bobby's pigs. While animal rights campaigners, notably the "militant vegans", have been triumphalist in heralding the likelihood that Britain will have to take a whole new approach to farming once this outbreak is over, nobody is claiming they did it and nobody is applauding the slaughter of millions of innocent animals. Oh, and Saddam Hussein did it or Colonel Gadaffi in revenge for the Lockerbie trial. Yeah, yeah...

Crooked farmers are responsible for the spread

Maff officials have changed their stance during the outbreak from one of total sympathy for farmers to hints dropped here and there that some of their number have been deliberately infecting sheep to get compensation, moving them from farm to farm under cover of darkness. The Army has also weighed in on this one, maintaining without naming names (as usual) this has been occurring. If so, it is only a small minority. Most farmers have been too shell-shocked, too aware of the risks, to indulge in such practices.

Meacher knows more than he is letting on

So where did it begin? In sheep before pigs, but how? Nobody knows. Or to rephrase that, those who might know are not saying. Last weekend, stories appeared that infected meat from a nearby Army training camp had gone into Mr Waugh's pigswill. This was pooh-poohed by the Ministry of Defence, sending investigators back to zero. The reality is, we may never know how it started.

When Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, called for a wholesale inquiry once the crisis had passed, he was roundly sat upon by Downing Street. Only a full inquiry would get to the bottom of what has occurred. That is not now likely to happen. Instead, Maff officials are going to present accounts of how it started, and how it was brilliantly contained, to the Government. Will they tell the full story? Will they tell the truth? Will they explain the many inconsistencies? Do pigs - Bobby Waugh's included - fly?

Foot-and-mouth phial 'went missing'
Reports that a phial containing the foot-and-mouth virus went missing from the Porton Down research laboratories have been raised at a public inquiry into the disease.
Northumberland County Council is hosting the five-day investigation into the spread of the virus and how rural communities were affected.
Professor Michael Dower, leading the inquiry, said he was still waiting to hear from the government regarding the matter. He wrote to rural affairs minister Lord Whitty on January 8 with a list of questions which had arisen from information the inquiry had received locally.
Professor Dower asked: "What forewarning did the Ministry of Agriculture (Maff) have of a possible foot-and-mouth outbreak prior to the outbreak in February? "Several of the written submissions the inquiry received refer to reports of a lost phial of foot-and-mouth virus from Porton Down," he said. Professor Dower said there had been reports that the disease was present in the country before it was officially admitted. There were also "reports that Maff officials were taking preparatory steps (eg making inquiries of timber merchants, taking part in simulation exercises, printing of `footpath closed' notices etc) before the outbreak of the disease was officially announced." "Can you confirm or deny these reports or provide any further detail?"
Economy 'ravaged'
The chairman hoped to have a reply before the end of the week-long inquiry. Farmers on Monday told the inquiry team how the disease had ravaged the local economy.
Iain Robson, a farmer and butcher from the Kirkwhelpington area, had farmed through two previous foot-and-mouth outbreaks in 1960-1 and 1967. "The impact of this one has been far, far greater," he told the hearing.
Doug Watkin, a stockman and county councillor from the Norham area, saw his livestock culled in April. He said: "I lost a lifetime of work in a short time." After he lost his animals, he said it was difficult to face other farmers.
Charles Scott, head of the Farm Business Survey Centre for Rural Economy, worked on producing a report for the regional development agency One NorthEast which has initially found that farmers whose animals were culled lost an average of £60,000 and received £80-£120,000 compensation. But Mr Scott said farmers who had had culls had lost an average of £15,000 due to increased costs and movement restrictions. - BBC

Stolen foot-and-mouth virus 'released deliberately'
The foot-and-mouth outbreak could have been started deliberately by someone who stole a test-tube of the virus from a laboratory.
The Sunday Express says a container of foot-and-mouth virus went missing from a secret Government lab at Porton Down in Wiltshire two months before the crisis began.
The disappearance was discovered during a routine audit of the sensitive unit, which also houses smallpox, TB, anthrax and Ebola. The newspaper says there are rumours the missing test-tube could have been taken by an animal rights activist.
The paper quotes a 'senior military source close to Porton Down' as saying: "A phial appears to have gone missing from one of the labs following a routine audit last year.
"Ministry officials were informed immediately and an investigation was launched initially by Special Branch and then by MI5, who are interested in the activities of animal rights protesters."
It says questions will be tabled in parliament about the Porton Down link this week. A Department of Health spokesman wouldn't comment but the paper said an agriculture ministry spokesman said the matter was being investigated.
The paper also claims it has seen documents confirming some sheep carried the virus long before the outbreak was confirmed on February 20. According to a Welsh vet, it was in Wales as early as January, says the paper.
Timber merchants say they were approached by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in early February to supply wood for pyres. Agriculture minister Nick Brown insisted this was part of a "regular contingency planning exercise".
He told the paper: "There are a number of urban legends doing the rounds that the ministry knew about this disease before. That is not true."
Annanova

A few weeks after the Porton Down theft, the foot and mouth epidemic surfaced all over England, indicating a terrorist attack, but strangely enough the British press, which usually falls over itself to report anything to do with terrorism, wasnt interested in the terrorist angle. They were interested in the Blair angle, and for months New Labour was blamed for foot and mouth.
It was announced that MI5 would investigate the Porton Down episode, but we can be certain that the report will never be made public, because Britains farmers might turn nasty if they find out that the viral strain that caused the outbreak was the same as the one that disappeared from Porton Down. At the behest of Charles Moore, the editor of the MI6 house newspaper, the Daily Telegraph (29th March), Blair was forced to delay the general election by a month so as to give the secret government a little more time to drag down his rating.
Bellwether MI6 journalist Tom Bower struck the final futile blow for his puppetmasters on the morning of the election in the Daily Mail, with a long article exposing that Blairs ministers had not only sabotaged the nations agriculture they had cocked up the planned National Football Stadium, a shocking revelation designed to enrage English football fans, whom MI6 no doubt reckon to be the bedrock of Blairs electoral support.
MI6, BUSH AND FOOT AND MOUTH

Chinese fight foot-and-mouth claims
By BBC News Online's community affairs reporter, Cindi John - Thursday, 5 April, 2001
Chinese catering associations have joined together to condemn what they say are unfounded allegations that the industry is responsible for the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
At a meeting in London earlier this week, a national organisation was founded to challenge the claims.
Restauranteurs and takeaway owners said their business has dropped off by up to 40% since claims last week that meat imported illegally for a Chinese restaurant and later used in pigswill was the cause of the outbreak.
Wing Wai Chan of the Yangzhou Association, which represents Chinese caterers, said many members had complained of a down-turn in business since the allegation began circulating. Mr Chan said business in his two restaurants had dropped by a third and he had no doubt this was due to press reports of the allegation. "Some regular customers come in and say some of their friends believe the story that foot and mouth originated in a Chinese restaurant, that's why they're staying away," he said.
There are around 12,000 Chinese takeaways and 3,000 Chinese restaurants in the UK. They employ up to 80% of the Chinese workforce and Mr Chan believed the drop in business could lead to people being laid off. He called on the government to clarify the situation, saying they believed the original allegation came from the agriculture ministry, MAFF.
"There are so many affected restaurants in this country and we need a categorical statement from the government to clear this rumour," he said.
Jabez Lam, of the National Civil Rights Movement, said they had already delivered a petition to Downing Street calling on the prime minister, Tony Blair, to investigate where the rumour came from but were still waiting for a response. But speaking to BBC News Online, a MAFF spokesman categorically denied they were the source of the press reports. He added there was no inquiry underway into how the allegation surfaced because they were certain it had not originated from MAFF.
Action
Jabez Lam said the Chinese community had now prepared a plan of action to draw attention to their demand for a retraction of the allegation. It will begin in London this weekend with a demonstration in Chinatown. Mr Lam said the Chinese community were determined to pinpoint where the allegation came from. "We are determined to take all possible action, including legal action, once we have identified the culprit," he said.
Jack Tan said press reporting was biased He added they would also be asking the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate whether there was any case for bringing charges of incitement to racial hatred. A complaint would also be made to the Press Complaints Commission about the media coverage. The editor of Dimsum, a British Chinese community website, said they were particularly concerned by the way the story had been reported by some newspapers.
Jack Tan said he believed some stories were xenophobic. "We are targeting what we see as stereotyping of the Chinese community as a foreign community living like the enemy within. "The fact is that the Chinese community has been in this country for close on to 200 years and since then we have been feeding the British public, doing their laundry, we've been creating jobs. "But of course none of this is relevant, all that's relevant is the stereotype," Mr Tan said.
Mr Tan said they had contacted newspapers in an effort to put across the Chinese perspective and were also encouraging visitors to their website to write letters of complaint and contact their MPs. - BBC

UK Chinese Restaurant "Not Foot And Mouth Disease Source"
British Agriculture Minister Nick Brown said on Sunday reports that the foot-and-mouth outbreak came from a Chinese restaurant were racist.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Brown said claims that it had been proven the disease came from waste from a Chinese restaurant were untrue.
His comments followed a meeting with Chinese community leaders earlier this month. Restaurateurs and takeaway owners said their business dropped by up to 40 percent in the wake of the reports.
"I have asked my officials to investigate claims that the source of this story came from within this ministry," he added. " It is down to all of us - politicians, media, farmers - to act responsibly. "This outbreak has caused great suffering and anguish, and what we need to do is work together to defeat the disease," he added.
There are about 12,000 Chinese takeaways and 3,000 Chinese restaurants in Britain. - english.people.com.cn

High strangeness: count the swans...

"...a laboratory at Weybridge has confirmed Romania has another cluster of bird flu - this time in 12 swans that died in fish ponds near the village of Maliuc, in the Danube Delta. It has yet to confirm whether the strain is the lethal H5NI." - BBC

Take a look on this page and
see if you can spot Blairs EU presidency signiture stamped
on these 'Avian flu' events

2001 - foot & mouth epidemic, elections postponed...and then won 'convincingly'

2005 Febuary - Massive food recall over 'lethally carcinagenic boot polish additive' Sudan 1 - in the run up to another 'convincing' election win

Message from Prime Minister Tony Blair

Welcome to the website of the UK Presidency of the European Union.

Here you will find authoritative information on all aspects of our six month Presidency - whether you live in Europe or beyond and are simply interested in the direction Europe is taking.

And this global audience reflects the global nature of the challenges Europe faces. The challenge to make Europe more competitive in the global market. The challenge to make Europe secure for all our people. The challenge for Europe to lead on climate change and the environment, on Africa and development.

None of these challenges are easy. None can be solved overnight. But nor can they be solved by any country acting alone. Europe will make better, faster progress when we work together.

The UK Presidency, with our partners, will play its full part in building and delivering the long-term, shared commitment. Our Presidency will end in December. But our efforts to deliver a fairer, more prosperous and sustainable society will not.

Whatever your interest in the UK Presidency, I hope this site will answer your questions and provide the information you need.

The Rt Hon Tony Blair, M.P.

Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service

After the Foot & Mouth debacle of 2001, which saw British Farms quarantined, shut down, animals needlessly slaughtered... misery, anguish and destitution for many farmers.

Who, in their right mind would trust
a British Virus outbreak response???

Since the 1950s the US military began developing bio-warfare weapons at Fort Detrick by cooking up germs from exotic animal diseases intended to cripple the Soviet or other enemy economies by killing horses, cattle, birds and swine with crippling new epidemics. By the 1970s new advances in genetic engineering allowed the creation of new designer viruses that jump species barriers and even cause cancer. Since then many analysts have claimed these germs have been used for population control as well as commercial purposes with the assistance of high level US government agencies.

In fact plagues of animal diseases had badly affected the UK which had slaughtered almost four million animals after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD). Internet-based encyclopedia Wikipedia defines the disease as a highly contagious but non-fatal viral disease, meaning it is similar to the common cold in humans. If left to their own devices animals recover from the disease with permanent immunity to it. However, laboratories licensed to manipulate or engineer the FMD virus can create forms that differ from the wild virus strain. The UK animals were infected with type O pan Asia strain, which is not normally found in the UK. Foot and mouth virus "research" was carried out by Merial Animal Health. This facility, owned by Merck and Aventis, is also a vaccine production laboratory located near Pirbright, Surrey, not far from Britain's own government Institute for Animal Health.

According to the Sunday Express, a routine audit into the government's bio-warfare research laboratory Porton Down revealed that a container of foot and mouth virus went missing two months before the outbreak in early 2001.7 While it is still unknown who was responsible for the outbreak, there were certainly many who profited from it. Merck's Merial is the leading supplier of foot and mouth disease vaccine.8 After the UK beef market collapsed overnight, Tyson Foods, the US based largest meat and poultry producer and packer in the world, expanded its international market into the UK. The outbreak proved to be catastrophic to UK agriculture and rural families but a lucrative cash cow to multinational slaughter houses, food processors and pharmaceutical companies.

- The Pandemic Some Want To Have

flashback: Psyops backstory?

Oct 2005: Scientists discover deadly bird flu began in Scotland
FRASER NELSON AND JIM GILCHRIST
Scientists tracing the history of the H5N1 virus have traced its first recorded episode to an Aberdeen farm. The dead bird was taken to Surrey for medical examination, after infecting two flocks of chickens.
But while British medical authorities are preparing to cope with a pandemic of a new H5N1 outbreak from South-east Asia, the case notes of the original Scottish case have not been consulted, on the grounds that the virus has grown far heartier and deadlier over the past 46 years. The reams of research papers tracing the history of H5N1, which resurfaced in South Korea two years ago, show academics are unanimous in identifying the virus as being effectively made in Scotland. A scientist identified only as Dr JE Wilson, of the Veterinary Laboratory in Lasswade, outside Edinburgh, is recorded as having worked on the case - sending the chicken to Addlestone, where the strain was medically isolated so it could be used in experiments. The Scottish H5N1 has been used in experiments, named "chicken/Scotland/1959".
It was the first of 21 avian flu outbreaks that have affected the world - including English turkeys in 1963, 1979 and 1991. But none showed the powers of contagion seen by the eight Asian countries to have confirmed H5N1, which has killed 69 people and 100 million birds.
Tom Pennycott, an avian veterinary specialist at the Scottish Agricultural College at Auchincruive, Ayrshire, said the virus may have the same title, but other characteristics will have changed over 46 years.
"The H5N1 that was found back in 1959 would have been quite different to the one that's around now," he said. "Similarly, there was an H5N1 down in Norfolk in December 1991 and it will be different to the H5N1 that's about just now."
He added that the only additional information he has been able to find about the H5N1 in Scotland was that two flocks of chickens were infected. The total number of birds affected, however, was not reported. No medical agency in Scotland or England was able to give many details - except to say that the disease has become heartier and deadlier since it was found in Scotland. There is also no sign of Dr Wilson. The Moredun Research Institute at Penicuik said that it had no record of him and that he was likely to have passed away. Flu strains are named after the various H and N protein codes recognised by the immune system. No H5 flu had ever spread to humans before 1997, when Hong Kong reported six casualties.
The 1959 Scottish H5N1 was - like all its successors - incapable of moving from species to species. But this changed last year, when the South Korean version showed itself capable of infecting pigs, rodents and humans.
Scientists have been most alarmed at the fast rate of H5N1's mutation. For the first time, the virus can survive in chicken faeces and in dead meat, without requiring the flow of fresh blood. This has made it stealthier, claiming victims who had no obvious connection with the agricultural industry. But its low human death toll suggests that the disease has yet to pass from human to human.
Meanwhile, Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, met British farmers yesterday and said he agreed with the National Farmers Union that chicken remained safe to eat. - scotsman

Previous outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza worldwide from - Avian influenza A(H5N1)- update 31

Year Country/area Domestic birds affected Strain

1959 Scotland chicken H5N1

1963 England turkey H7N3

1966 Ontario (Canada) turkey H5N9

1976 Victoria (Australia) chicken H7N7

1979 Germany chicken H7N7

1979 England turkey H7N7

1983–1985 Pennsylvania (USA)* chicken, turkey H5N2

1983 Ireland turkey H5N8

1985 Victoria (Australia) chicken H7N7

1991 England turkey H5N1

1992 Victoria (Australia) chicken H7N3

1994 Queensland (Australia) chicken H7N3

1994–1995 Mexico* chicken H5N2

1994 Pakistan* chicken H7N3

1997 New South Wales (Australia) chicken H7N4

1997 Hong Kong (China)* chicken H5N1

1997 Italy chicken H5N2

1999–2000 Italy* turkey H7N1

2002 Hong Kong (China) chicken H5N1

2002 Chile chicken H7N3

2003 Netherlands* chicken H7N7

The Ministry of silly diseases? This Parrot is no more...

Parrot enthusiasts have voiced concerns: apparantly there was 2 shipments of exotic birds from South America & an entire shipment of birds may have be culled needlessly. Which begs the question...how many thousands / millions of birds have been needlessly destroyed...
Bird flu found in parrot in UK quarantine-ministry
LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A parrot that died in quarantine in Britain has been diagnosed with bird flu, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.
"A highly pathogenic H5 avian flu virus has been isolated in the parrot imported from Suriname, South America," the ministry said in a statement.
The statement did not specifically say whether it was a case of the H5N1 strain which has caused alarm in Europe in recent weeks as it can transfer to humans in limited circumstances.
The parrot was part of a mixed consignment of birds that arrived on Sept. 16, the ministry said. Those birds were held with another consignment from Taiwan.
"The confirmed case does not affect the UK's official disease-free status because the disease has been identified in imported birds during quarantine," chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds said.
The bird had been held in a secure quarantine unit and all the birds there were being culled humanely, the ministry said. The small number of people who had been in contact with the birds were receiving antiviral treatment as a precautionary measure, the statement added. - alertnet.org

Update: Parrot did not die of bird flu - tests are a farce

Doubts over bird flu tests raised
Doubts over testing in quarantine for bird flu have been raised after it emerged Taiwanese finches, not a parrot, brought the disease to the UK. A government report said the mixing of tissue samples led officials to wrongly assume a South American blue-headed pionus was the source of the virus.
Opposition politicians said the report exposed confusion in the system and raised more questions than it answered. But ministers argued it showed quarantine procedures were working.
The probe for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it was more likely the virus was brought to an unnamed quarantine centre in Essex by 50 finches from Taiwan rather than by the parrot as previously thought.
Because the tissue samples of the first birds to die were mixed, it was unclear which birds had the H5N1 virus strain.
Later tests showed the Taiwanese birds were the "most likely" virus source, as H5N1 was not found in other species.
Shadow environment secretary Oliver Letwin said the report had exposed confusion in the handling of the issue and that quarantine procedures should be tightened immediately. Testing pooled samples for diseases may have been appropriate in the past but not now when the country was on a state of alert for bird flu, he said. He added: "Defra informs us that it will be another three weeks before they will announce what they will do to strengthen the quarantine system. This delay is quite unacceptable."
His comments were backed by the former president of the British Veterinary Society Bob McCracken who said although pooling samples was standard practice in some cases, it should not have been done with two separate consignments. But he said this was a minor issue compared with the fact that the disease had been successfully contained in the quarantine centre.
Liberal Democrat environment spokesman Norman Baker said it was more important than ever the quarantine review produced recommendations that inspired public confidence. He added: "This is turning into even more of a shambles than could have been imagined. This revelation raises more questions than it answers."
The report said the birds were grouped according to species and location in the quarantine facility and tested in line with accepted epidemiological sampling practice. But chairman of the environment, food and rural affairs committee Michael Jack said if officials wanted to know where a disease had come from it would be sensible for tissue samples to be tested separately.
Smuggling?
Environment minister Ben Bradshaw admitted the procedures for detecting the disease may have to be strengthened and said Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett had already set up a review. But he said there was no cause for alarm as all the birds had been accounted for and none had been released into the country.
The report found the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu was initially identified when tissues from two birds that had died in the centre were analysed together. These were a blue-headed pionus from Surinam and a mesia from Taiwan, which were found dead on 14 October. The report concludes "on the balance of probabilities" the H5N1 was brought to the facility by the mesias. This was because later tests showed that 53 Taiwanese mesias died from the disease, but that none of the birds from Surinam had.
Responding to the report, the Taiwanese government said: "There is a good possibility that profit-driven traders smuggled mesias from China to Taiwan, using our avian flu-free country as a front from which they laundered these birds to the UK and other countries."
A separate investigation is being undertaken by Essex County Council's trading standards department into the circumstances surrounding the quarantine of infected birds. -

what next? are we to see the slaughter of domestic cats
as their tests are mixed to serve no useful purpose???

Our findings in tigers and leopards extend the host range of this virus and, together with the findings in domestic cats, suggest that this H5N1 virus is more pathogenic for felids than other influenza viruses. This finding has important implications for wildlife conservation and influenza virus epidemiology. First, H5N1 virus infection may threaten the survival of endangered felids, as has been shown recently for other emerging viruses in susceptible wildlife (19,20) . The severity of this threat is increased because H5N1 virus may be transmitted horizontally between domestic cats (18). Second, if the higher pathogenicity of H5N1 virus for felids also means longer excretion of more virus, the role of felids in avian influenza epidemiology, both in humans and in poultry, needs to be reevaluated. Finally, the confirmation of H5N1 virus infection as the probable cause of death in two other mammalian hosts besides humans implies that more species of mammals may be at risk for infection with this virus.
Avian Influenza H5N1 in Tigers and Leopards

UK prepares for martial law?

UK: Schools to close and sport banned if bird flu hits
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor Published: 16 October 2005
The Government believes that a pandemic could kill some 700,000 people in Britain
Emergency plans in the event of a British bird flu pandemic - including closing schools, banning sporting events and dealing with disorder on the streets - are to be announced by ministers this week, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.
They will also disclose a contract to buy two and a half million doses of flu vaccine to enable essential workers to operate during the pandemic, and publish a booklet to be sent to every GP on how to combat it.
The move follows yesterday's discovery that the deadly virus has reached Europe for the first time. Tests at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey, revealed that wild birds in the Danube delta in Romania had died of the H5N1 strain of the disease, which scientists fear will mutate to spread rapidly among people, killing tens of millions worldwide.
The Government believes that a pandemic could kill some 700,000 people in Britain, and that it would be impossible to stop it once it reached the country. The new plans are designed merely to mitigate its worst effects and to try to stop a total breakdown of services and public order.
The plans allow for: closing schools, theatres and public buildings; cancelling mass gatherings such as sporting fixtures; suspending international flights from infected countries; deploying police to deal with public disorder; setting up special centres to dispense the anti-viral drug Tamiflu; and encouraging people to observe basic hygiene.
Ministers accept that some of these measures could involve making hard choices. Closing schools, for example, could result in nurses who are mothers staying at home to look after their children. Suspending flights would lead to massive disruption, and would probably delay the virus's arrival by only a few weeks.
And the plans allow for Tamiflu to be given only to people who have had symptoms of the flu for less than 24 hours. There are medical grounds for this, as this is the period during which it is effective.
Ministers will also announce they have finalised a contract to supply a vaccine to essential workers that they hope would blunt the effects of the disease, although it would not provide complete protection. - independent

UK Culling plan:
The Department of Health will also announce its revised pandemic flu contingency plan this week. At the moment, planning is based on 54,000 Britons dying but in June the civil contingency secretariat advised the plan should be able to cope with a death toll of 700,000 - just over 1% of the population.
The new plan is understood to take account of the Civil Contingencies Act which allows the government to introduce emergency powers to safeguard human life. This means people could be confined to their homes and the army used to enforce quarantines.
Defra is to seek powers to cull every flock within two miles of an avian flu outbreak. At the moment, it only has the authority to kill infected flocks.
The move is likely to anger the farming industry, which saw millions of animals culled during the foot and mouth disease outbreak of 2001. But experts believe "pre-emptive" culls are the only way to ensure the virus does not spread. - timesonline

But...er...not this winter...

A bird flu pandemic will hit Britain - but not necessarily this winter, the chief medical officer has said. - BBC

Update: UK plans mass vaccination against pandemic flu
By Patricia Reaney LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Britain plans to buy enough vaccine to protect the entire population in case a deadly bird flu virus develops into a pandemic strain capable of killing millions of people, the government said on Wednesday.
Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson said vaccine manufacturers are being invited to tender contracts to supply 120 million doses, enough for two shots per person, once the pandemic strain is known. "A vaccine to protect against pandemic flu cannot be made until the new virus is known," Donaldson said. "We're asking vaccine companies to gear up to supply us with pandemic flu vaccine even though at this stage we can't give them the strain, nobody can," he told a news conference.
The move would put Britain at the front of the line in getting a vaccine if a pandemic emerged. Scientists believe a human flu pandemic is already overdue. They are worried that the H5N1 bird flu virus that has been circulating in Asia since 1997, and has been reported in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania, could evolve into a highly infectious strain in humans similar to the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic that killed as many as 50 million people worldwide.
Samples of a bird flu virus from a turkey in Greece are also being tested to see if it is lethal bird flu. The H5N1 bird flu virus has jumped to humans and killed 60 people in Asia. Twice as many have been infected but so far it is not easily transmissible from person-to-person -- a prerequisite for a pandemic strain. To become a pandemic strain the H5N1 bird flu would have to mutate on its own or mix its genetic material with a human influenza virus to become highly infectious in humans who would have little or no immunity against it.
SLEEPING CONTRACTS
An effective vaccine is the only measure that will defeat a human flu pandemic but it could take 4-6 months if a pandemic strain emerged to identify it and develop a vaccine. Donaldson said the so-called sleeping contracts would be incentive for vaccine manufacturers to gear up to supply a vaccine because they would know they had the contract if a pandemic emerges. "We regard pandemic flu as public health enemy number one and we are on the march against it," he said.
Several companies are working to develop a pandemic flu vaccine, including Sanofi-Aventis SA , GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Chiron Corp . The move is the latest in Britain's contingency plans for dealing with a possible influenza pandemic. In March it announced that it was buying 14.6 million courses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche The stockpile, which will cost about 200 million pounds ($350.6 million), will be completed by September 2006. The drug reduces the severity of flu and is considered a first line of defence until scientists can develop a vaccine.
The European Commission has advised member states to stockpile antiviral drugs. Officials also plan to hold talks with the vaccine manufacturers. (BIRDFLU-BRITAIN-VACCINE, editing by Steve Addison, Reuters Messaging: patricia.reaney.reuters.com@reuters.net)) - alertnet.org

bird flu coming to Britain [again]

Ducks could bring bird flu to Britain
11/01/2006 - Wild ducks could spark bird flu in Britain by passing the virus on to domestic birds, an expert has said.
Dr Rob McCracken from the British Veterinary Association told the Today programme that ducks were the birds most likely to pass the virus on to domestic poultry before it could be detected as they show no symptoms of the disease.
He said that free-range poultry in Britain presented a "considerable risk" since they could easily come into contact with wild ducks who have migrated through Croatia, Romania and Turkey.
In Turkey 15 cases of bird flu have been confirmed so far and three children have died from the disease. The lethal H5N1 strain of the virus has been found in birds in 19 of Turkey's 81 provinces.
Dr McCracken said that although the chances of Britain's poultry being infected were slim, the government was right to say birds may eventually have to be kept indoors. He also said that migratory ducks were most likely to land on waterways and advised that domestic birds be kept away from such areas where there was a high risk of contact with wild birds.
He said: "I believe that by and large we have every expectation that there'll be very little possibility of the virus getting to our domestic poultry. "The government I think are quite right in this in saying that when the time comes birds will be moved indoors and the reason why we don't do it sooner is that there are a number of farms, quite a significant number of free range farms do not have facilities to contain the birds 24 hours per day, every day."
He stressed that immediate action did not need to be taken but that when threat was from the virus was imminent, birds would have to be moved inside.
"Let's remember that this is not a virus that's going to spread from farm to farm in the way, in the manner, that foot and mouth disease did," he said. - dehavilland.co.uk

how subtle?

Suspected bird flu victim was in UK
A cook on a ship which recently sailed from an unamed UK port died from suspected bird flu in a Lithuanian port yesterday, the director of the country's epidemical crisis centre was reported to have said last night. - Scotsman

Blair urged stop research cuts
Prime Minister Tony Blair is being urged to intervene to halt plans for huge cuts to a top research establishment. The row centres on the future of the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and claims a spending shake up would devastate a "health service" for wildlife.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is calling on the Prime Minister to intervene as the public consultation on the future of the world class network of study centres and scientists reaches a critical stage.
The Natural Environment Research Council meets on March 8 to decide on the fate of the CEH at Monks Wood, Cambridgeshire, Winfrith Dorset, Oxford and Swindon.
Tom Oliver, Head of Rural Policy at the CPRE said: "Will the Prime Minister leave a legacy of a high quality, modern and effective "health service" for our wildlife? Or will he allow the essential network of study bases, world class scientists and their huge experience in "preventive health care" for wildlife to be thrown away? "And just when we need them most. CPRE is calling on the Prime Minister to commit to retaining the CEH and its existing number of field study centres, multi-skilled scientific teams and their long term research programmes which cannot be undertaken effectively by universities".
A decision on the future of the organisation is due on March 8. Tom Oliver added: "Our wildlife faces an ever increasing range of threats, particularly from climate change, pollution and lower river flows.
"The Prime Minister says he cares about the effects of climate change. If he really does, he cannot let the people who are working to understand its effects on wildlife be lost and much of their work abandoned. "This core group of scientists are at the cutting edge of work on the long term effects of climate change and pollution on the health of our cherished birds, animals and plants. Their early warnings on the effects of climate change or pollution are invaluable in saving wildlife from decline. And a Government minister has acknowledged the importance of this work. This is the preventive health service for our wildlife.
"Seeing a rich variety of wildlife when out and about is greatly valued by the English people. Threatening that enjoyment and the sheer survival of many species would be madness. The Prime Minister should show leadership and save this key organisation while he still can." - scotsman

Farmers surprised by flu comments
28th Feb 2006 - Farmers' groups have told of their "surprise" at comments by the chief scientist that he expects bird flu to arrive in the UK and remain for years. Professor Sir David King, the government's chief scientific adviser, told the BBC it may become "endemic" and remain for "five years plus". He also ruled out using the existing vaccine against the H5N1 strain.
The National Farmers' Union said it "simply did not accept" his view that the virus would become prevalent. "If someone is saying we are going to see this endemically within the UK commercial flock that is a surprise," the NFU's chief poultry adviser said.
The NFU was following scientific and veterinary advice on the question of vaccination, chief poultry adviser Maria Ball said. But the Soil Association said it was "mystfied" and "dismayed" by the decision not to vaccinate. It called for the use of "ring" vaccination - when poultry close to any outbreak are inoculated.
"They have got to bring in every weapon in their armoury," said the association's Robin Maynard. He said he had a sense of "deja vu", likening it to the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. "The end result was 11 million animals slaughtered and £8bn cost to the tax-payer. "We just don't want to go down that barbaric, medieval route."
Vaccine
But mass vaccination of British poultry in the event of a bird flu outbreak had not been ruled out, Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said on Monday. However, Mrs Beckett has questioned the vaccine's effectiveness in preventing the H5N1 virus spreading. The government is understood to be holding talks with Chinese scientists who are developing a new vaccine, which it is hoped will be more effective.
Prof King said the existing H5N1 inoculation would mask signs of the virus in birds but not prevent its spread. Rare breeds of birds kept in zoos would be the only cases where vaccines would be feasible. The inoculation of organic or free range birds would not be recommended. The vaccination of nearly a million free range ducks and geese has begun in south-west France.
In the UK, people with 50 or more poultry must register with the government before midnight on Tuesday.
Foot-and-mouth
Prof King told BBC News: "I would anticipate that avian flu will arrive at some point in the UK. "We also have to anticipate that it will be here for five years plus. We are talking about the possibility of this disease being endemic here in the UK."
BBC environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee said Prof King's comments seemed to "fly against the spirit of what we have heard from all sorts of government scientists and ministers". But she said he may be envisaging sporadic outbreaks that would be prevented from spreading beyond small areas.
Free-range poultry farmer John Widdowson, from Tiverton, Devon, said Prof King's comments were "no surprise at all". "But I still think we have got a good chance of keeping it out of poultry flocks. We have had lots of time to prepare for this," he said. "This doesn't need to be a catastrophe."
But organic poultry farmer Ritichie Riggs, from Holsworthy, Devon, branded Prof King's comments as "irresponsible", while the decision not to vaccinate had left him "demoralised". "They don't care about the flocks, they are not farming people, they don't care about the animals," he said. "We are just going along exactly the same route as they took with foot-and-mouth disease," he said. - .bbc.co.uk

Racing pigeons 'face bird flu cull'
Marc Horne The Sunday Times - March 19, 2006
A SCIENTIST advising the government on measures to prevent the spread of avian flu in Britain has warned that pigeon fanciers may have to cull their prize birds if pandemic strikes. Dr Douglas Fleming, director of the Royal College of General Practitioners research unit, said that racing pigeons may have to be slaughtered to prevent a spread of the virus.
Urban pigeon lofts, many of which are close to residential properties, could also have to be cleared and disinfected or destroyed to ensure that people living nearby are not at risk. His comments follow a warning by ministers that Highland shooting estates could be stopped from releasing game birds into the wild to prevent the spread of the flu. Free-range and organic poultry farmers have been told they will have to confine their flocks in sheds.
The moves are in preparation for the arrival of avian flu in Britain after the disease was confirmed on a French turkey farm last month. It was probably carried there by wild birds whose migratory routes also pass over Britain.
Fleming, a member of the government's joint committee on flu, fears it is inevitable that the H5N1 strain will arrive here. "If we got to a situation where the virus was widespread throughout the country serious policy decisions would have to be made, which could restrict close contact between birds and humans," he said. "If this was the case then the sport of pigeon racing would have to be stopped in this country. If you got a flock of pigeons that were affected, or suspected to be affected, we would have to have a cull. "It would be the same as the precautions that were taken during the foot and mouth outbreak. You have got to look at whether pigeon fanciers could catch the virus from the bird. "Also, if a person suffering from normal seasonal flu handles a bird suffering from avian flu, you have the potential for the viruses getting together and a new virus developing. Obviously we need to limit the opportunities for that."
Fleming is to address a conference on pandemic flu co-organised by NHS Scotland and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, in the capital later this month. He was involved in attempting to contain Britain's last flu pandemic in 1969.
"Quite clearly it is only a matter of time before avian flu comes into this country, just the same as it has come into France," he said. "You cannot stop wild birds from flying across borders and spreading the disease."
Peter Bryant, general manager of the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, insisted there was a low risk of racing pigeons contracting bird flu. The pigeon racing season is due to start next weekend and Bryant said voluntary restrictions had been implemented to address concerns of pigeons bringing bird flu into the UK.
"We would normally be racing from France and Belgium but we have taken the pragmatic approach and decided not to go ahead with that in the current climate," he said. "If there is an outbreak in the UK we expect to have some restrictions placed on us. We are in regular contact with the government and will implement any advice they give to us."
Joe Murphy, spokesman for the Scottish National Flying Club, admitted that pigeon fanciers were concerned for the future: "A lot of our members are worried about what will happen if bird flu does arrive here. "People involved in the sport are not stupid and, if the disease did come, they would want to keep their birds inside. Some champion pigeons can sell for as much as £110,000 and people would not want to take any risks with them."
A Scottish executive spokeswoman said any gathering of birds could pose a risk.
"In the event of an avian flu outbreak in Scotland, an immediate response would be to withdraw the licence for bird gatherings, therefore including pigeon racing, until the epidemiological situation had been clarified," she said.
More than 10,000 Scots regularly take part in pigeon fancying with clubs and associations existing from Shetland to the Borders. - times online.co.uk

Mass Culling? why?
It's a Psyop!

Avian Flu cull

What's next? Who's next? wooo!

Artwork by Spencer Tunick

Bird flu plan for 'mass graves'
The use of anti-viral drugs may be one way to deal with an outbreak
2 april 2006 - Plans for mass burials are being considered as part of Home Office preparations for a possible bird flu pandemic, reports the Sunday Times. It cites a confidential report that says a "prudent worst case" assessment suggested 320,000 could die if the H5N1 virus mutated into a human form. The document warns "there are likely to be substantially more deaths than can be managed within current timescales".
The Home Office said it did not respond to leaks but is making preparations.
A spokesman said: "Prudent precautionary planning is under way across all elements of the response, including the health service, other essential services and local authorities."
The H5N1 virus, which causes bird flu, does not pose a large-scale threat to humans, as it cannot pass easily from one person to another.
'Common burial'
Experts, however, fear the virus could mutate at some point in the future, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk. Any such mutation and subsequent pandemic would lead to delays of up to 17 weeks in burying or cremating victims, the document - said to have been discussed by a cabinet committee - states.
And the document warns the prospect of "common burial" would stir up images of the mass pits used to bury victims of the Great Plague in 1665. However, it "might involve a large number of coffins buried in the same place at the same time, in such a way that allowed for individual graves to be marked". The report suggests town halls could deal with what it refers to as a "base case" of 48,000 deaths in England and Wales in a 15-week pandemic.
'Strong plans'
Titled Managing Excess Deaths in an Influenza Pandemic and dated 22 March, according to the Sunday Times the document says vaccines would not be available at least for "the first wave" of a pandemic and would not be a "silver bullet".
The newspaper claimed ministers discussed the issue last week and, although they were alarmed at the prospect of such delays to burials, accepted there might be no option in the event of a mass outbreak.
Bird flu has already prompted the slaughter of millions of birds across three continents since the H5N1 strain emerged three years ago. And it has claimed the lives of more than 100 humans - all of whom had been in close contact with infected birds.
Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson has said preparing for a pandemic was "a top priority" and "strong plans" were in place to respond. These plans include building a stockpile of 14.6 million doses of anti-viral drugs to treat those who fall ill during a pandemic. - bbc.co.uk

PSYWAR! Weapons test gone right?
In March 2006 6 men were taken into intensive care when they suffered devastating effects after taking a drug in a medical trial at private medical research centre at Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow.
According to TeGenero, makers of the drug known as TGN1412,: The trial began at 8am on Monday in the Parexel Unit at Northwick Park. Six volunteers were injected with the drug and two with placebo. Unfortunately all six of the volunteers who had been given the drug developed serious symptoms.
The Scotsman reports: TGN1412 had previously been tested on mice, rabbits and monkeys before human trials began. The monkeys were given doses 160 times stronger than the human volunteers without becoming sick. GERMAN prosecutors are investigating the company at the centre of the disastrous drugs trial which has left six men seriously ill in a UK hospital.
TeGenero could face charges of violating drug research laws and causing bodily harm. It also emerged that Germany's drugs testing watchdog, the Paul Erhlich Institute, only granted permission for TeGenero to test TGN1412 in the country on 17 February after "preliminary concerns" were addressed. But the institute refused to give details of these concerns. Permission to test the drug in the UK was granted on 27 January. It is unclear why human guinea pigs were picked in Britain, where they are paid around £2,000, when in Germany such healthy volunteers would have received £500. The tests were performed by Parexel which was advertising on its website five clinical trials at its 36-bed unit at Northwick Park Hospital, including trial 68419, for a drug developed for the treatment of inflammatory diseases such as rheumatism
TGN1412, developed in a relatively small German laboratory, is part of the promising research into monoclonal antibodies that may be of great significance in neutralising or blocking a human protein (thus helping the fight against cancer) or in possibly stimulating antibodies to boost the human immune system. The drug agressively stimulates T-Cells helping to enhance the Immune system...what is thought to have gone wrong is that the T-Cells of the victims massively over reacted [mutated?] & started to attack their vital organs...One or more of the drug trial victims may remain in a coma for up to a year -

is this a BIO-WARFARE TEST hidden in plain sight?

PAREXEL Clinical Pharmacology Research Unit
Northwick Park Hospital
Level 7, Watford Road
Harrow
Middlesex HA1 3UJ
United Kingdom

TGN 1412 is not a chemical but a biological agent, an antibody designed to lock on to a particular target in the immune system and modify its behaviour.

Drugs trial patient told more tests or no cash
Tuesday, 4th April 2006, 14:45 - Category: Healthy Living - LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) -
A human guinea pig involved in the notorious drugs trial which left six men seriously ill today (Tuesday) he claimed he was told to undergo more tests....or he couldn't collect his £2,000 fee.
Student Raste Khan, 23, said he received an answerphone message saying he should return to Northwick Park Hospital, where the clinical trials were conducted, but said nothing would persuade him to step foot inside "that place" again. Mr Khan added that since the anonymous call to his mobile phone he has heard nothing from project leader Dr Daniel Bradford. But Mr Khan said: "There is no way I am going inside that place again. They will have to come to me. I saw the most terrible things in there and it is still haunting me."
Mr Khan, from Barry, near cardiff, who was given a placebo, said he still has not even had an apology from Parexel, the American firm that tested TGN 1412 on behalf of its German developer TeGenero.
He said: "As the trauma unfolded I was not even told by any of the doctors or nurses that I would be alright because I had been given a placebo. I was expecting any minute to collapse like the rest of them. "Then, when I was sent home a few hours later, I was still in the dark as to whether I was going to be alright. And I have not heard from TeGenero or Parexel apologising for what happened. "All I have got was this answerphone message about a week after the trial. It was a lady, I do not know who she was. She said that if I did not attend the hospital for more tests I would forfeit the agreed £2,000 fee. There would be no payment at all."
Mr Khan, who is training to be a primary school teacher, said his recollection of what happened that fateful day last month was still vivid in his mind. He said he and his fellow volunteers had spent the previous day at the hospital watching two football matches - Manchester United against Newcastle and Arsenal against Liverpool. Then they had a meal and played Playstation games until going to sleep at about midnight.
Mr Khan, who is planning to sue for compensation, said that next day they were woken by a nurse at about 6am and given various medical tests before the trial began. He said: "It went from total calm to a living hell. With me was Nav Modi, Nino El Hady and a South African guy whose name I cannot remember.
"We were given the drug through drips at ten minute intervals. The South African was reading a novel and suddenly he stopped reading and started rolling around his bed clutching his head. "Then Nav started to pant, and his chest was pounding. They gave him an oxygen mask but he kept ripping it off. He was screaming "my head, my head" and was wriggling about like a worm.
"He started vomitting into a black bin liner, and then he passed out. He was in and out of consciousness and his breathing stopped. "While I was in there it was like a rollercaoster. I was watching these guys suffering and was thinking 'any second now, it will be me.' The most horrible thing was I had no idea I had been given a placebo. It was really scary. "Nav just kept screaming, and then a doctor gave him an injection and he seemed to calm down. I think they must just have sedated him.
"I was told to go to lunch and had some sandwiches and then went on the internet to contact some friends telling them what had happened. "Then at about 4pm I was told I could go home. I suspected I had been given the placebo, but was never actually told."
Mr Khan, who took part in another trial for a schizophrenia drug at Guy's Hospital in December for which he was paid £1,6OO, said he had decided to be a human guinea pig to help pay off bills while at college. His mother Shamim and father Mohammed are still in Wales and he had not even told them what he was doing.
Mr Khan said: "I have been home to see them since. One of my brothers was also going to take part in this trial but dropped out at the last minute because he did not have the time. That was a lucky escape."
Despite repeated attempts he could not find out for sure that he had been given the placebo because Dr Bradford did not reply to his calls. He said: "I left repeated messages for him. For two days I had no idea what I had been given. My family and friends have gone through the hell of worrying about me." Added Mr Khan: "I feel guilty I was one of the two lucky ones given a placebo, but more than that, I am outraged at the way we have all been treated."
He said no amount of money would ever persuade him to take part in a drugs trial again, although he hoped the disaster would not affect the industry in the future. Mr Khan said: "These trials are vital to find cures for horrible illnesses, and one bad experience should not ruin it for everyone else. "It is like the naughty boy at school who gets break cancelled for the whole class. But they must be monitored more carefully so nothing like this can ever happen again."

commercially sensitive fallout?

TeGenero fallout will be minor
By Steve Mitchell Mar 24, 2006, WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- TeGenero`s disastrous phase 1 trial of TGN1412 -- in which six men became seriously ill hours after receiving the drug -- has stirred up questions about the clinical trial process, but experts said the fallout for industry and the regulation of clinical trials is likely to be minimal.
'I don`t think it will have much implication for the biopharmaceutical industry,' Eric Schmidt, an analyst with S.G. Cowen, told United Press International. 'Anytime a foreign substance is tested in humans, it carries risk,' Schmidt said. 'This seemed to be an unfortunate occurrence, but also an isolated example.'
In the trial, which was being conducted at Northwick Park Hospital in London, six volunteers who received TGN1412 on March 13 developed a severe inflammatory reaction and multi-organ failure. The men were admitted to intensive care and two remain critically ill.
Jerome Yates, a medical oncologist and senior vice president for research at the American Cancer Society, told UPI he didn`t think the study indicated there was a problem with the clinical-trial process in the United States. 'Generally speaking, the way clinical trials are conducted in this country, particularly phase 1 trials, are much, much more careful,' Yates said. He added that the study design should have raised red flags before the trial was ever initiated. The warnings included that the study participants were paid approximately $3,500. 'Most institutional review boards in this country would not approve something like that because it`s a form of financial coercion,' Yates said. In addition, phase 1 trials of this type generally call for treating one patient at a time, not six simultaneously as apparently happened in this study. Healthy volunteers also are generally not included in phase 1 trials of potential cancer treatments, he said.
Still, Yates thought it was likely that regulatory authorities would review the clinical trial process. 'I think everybody will review the situation,' he said. 'You can`t take healthy people and put them in life-threatening jeopardy.'
The industry and regulatory authorities are apparently not eager to discuss the matter. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Biotechnology Industry Organization and the Food and Drug Administration did not respond to requests from UPI for comment.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and the local ethics board approved the trial design.
TeGenero, which was developing the monoclonal antibody drug for treatment of leukemia, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, subsequently acknowledged that monkeys given the drug during preclinical studies developed swollen glands but insisted there was no indication the compound would cause serious problems in humans.
'We are shocked about the symptoms we have seen in the volunteers,' said Thomas Hanke, TeGenero`s chief scientific officer. 'Extensive pre-clinical tests showed no sign of any risk,' Hanke added.
Despite these assurances, The Lancet, in an editorial in the March 25 issue of the journal, called for independent scrutiny of the trial. 'Although most first-in-man trials are not associated with such dreadful events, the fact that they have occurred should lead to maximum transparency to reaffirm trust in clinical trials and their regulation,' the Lancet stated in the editorial.
The Lancet raised the issue of whether the trial protocol was followed to the letter. The protocol approved by the MHRA specified the drug should be given at two-hour intervals, but TeGenero`s Hanke said the protocol left the order and timing of administration to the discretion of the principal investigator at Parexel, a contract research organization that was conducting the trial for TeGenero.
The Lancet said both MHRA and TeGenero denied its request to see the protocol on the grounds that it was 'commercially sensitive.' The Lancet objected to this rationale, stating, 'Commercial confidentiality should not obstruct independent scrutiny of the TGN1412 protocol and trial conduct.'
The editorial added, 'Until the MHRA and police investigations are complete, it is unclear whether there was a fault with the quality of the drug, contamination, a deviation from the protocol, or whether this was an unpredicted adverse event.'
Parexel said in a statement issued this week that a preliminary audit conducted by its internal quality-assurance department supports the notion that the protocol 'was adhered to properly, and that best practices and policies and procedures were correctly followed.' The firm also noted that so far MHRA, which is investigating, 'has found no reason to recommend the discontinuation of trials at Parexel`s phase 1 unit.'
Boehringer Ingelheim, which manufactured the compound used in the clinical trial, said it conducted 'an additional review of the manufacturing documentation and the pharmaceutical release procedure' and confirmed that the material it supplied 'complied with all pharmaceutical and legal requirements.' - via monstersandcritics.com

5th April 2006 - Swan in Scotland

Swan in Scotland shows signs of bird flu
(Filed: 05/04/2006)
A suspected case of bird flu is being investigated in Fife, the Scottish Executive has confirmed. A statement from the Executive said preliminary tests had found "highly pathogenic H5 avian flu" in a sample from a swan found dead in Fife. The statement said: "The exact strain of the virus is not yet known, tests are continuing and a further result is expected tomorrow. "In accordance with a recent EU decision the Scottish Executive is putting in place a Protection Zone of a minimum of 3km radius and a Surveillance Zone of 10km."
Charles Milne, Chief Veterinary Officer for Scotland, said: "While disease has yet to be confirmed, this is an important development. "Bird keepers outside the protection zone should redouble their efforts to prepare for bringing their birds indoors if that becomes necessary. "They must also review their biosecurity measures to ensure that all possible precautions have been taken." - telegraph.co.uk

still 5th April 2006 - cats alert! eh?

Cats could fuel bird flu pandemic
By Mark Henderson Science Correspondent Times Online April 05, 2006
Cats are significantly more likely to catch and pass on bird flu than has generally been thought and could help the virus to mutate to cause a human pandemic, scientists said today. The pets' role in the spread of the H5N1 virus, and the potential risk they pose to their owners, have been underestimated by public and animal health bodies, according to a team of leading virologists from the Netherlands. Research at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam has shown that the cats catch bird flu reasonably easily, either by close contact with infected birds or by eating them, and that they can transmit the virus to other cats. This could give the H5N1 virus new opportunities to adapt to mammals, including humans, making the emergence of a pandemic strain that spreads easily from person to person more likely, the scientists said in the journal Nature.
Albert Osterhaus, who led the work, said that the findings make it important for cats to be confined indoors in areas where the disease is endemic, to limit their contact with infected wild birds or poultry.
Affected regions of Germany and France have already ordered that cats be kept indoors, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has not yet said whether it would make similar provisions should bird flu reach Britain.
Dr Osterhaus said that while none of the 191 human cases of bird flu has been contracted from a cat, it is impossible to rule out such transmission. Though infected cats shed much less of the virus than do birds, the very close contact that many owners have with their pets could potentially put them at risk. "The point we are trying to make is that as soon as the virus becomes endemic in wild birds or poultry, it would be wise to realise that cats are susceptible animals," he said. "As soon as you have birds that become sick cats are very effective a catching and eating them. Our advice is that in endemic areas you should keep cats indoors and dogs on the lead. "There is also a public health concern. Although the risk is not large because the level of virus excretion is lower than birds, there is a concern because people tend to take good care of sick pets. It is unlikely that people will get too close to a chicken, but many people do with cats. You would not want an infected cat in a household situation. There is still no need to panic, but if you're in an endemic area you should keep your cats indoors."
The first cases of H5N1 among cats were reported in Thailand in 2004, when 14 out of 15 cats in a household near Bangkok became ill and died after eating an infected chicken carcass. Infections were then identified among leopards and tigers fed on poultry at Thai zoos. In Europe, cases have recently been confirmed among domestic cats in Germany and Austria.
Dr Osterhaus said it was also clear that infection is prevalent among domestic cats in countries where bird flu is endemic such as in Thailand, Iraq and Indonesia. In the last of these, the feline version of the disease has its own name: "It is sufficiently well known to have been given an onomatopoeic name in the local Javanese dialect - 'aargh-plop'," he said.
Experiments in Rotterdam have shown that cats can be infected via the respiratory tract, by eating infected meat, or by contact with other infected cats. While the overall risk to humans is difficult to assess, it is impossible to rule out, Dr Osterhaus said.
"Apart from the role that cats may play in H5N1 virus transmission to other species, they also may be involved in helping the virus to adapt to efficient human-to-human transmission," he said. "Cats may provide the virus with an opportunity to adapt to efficient transmission within and among mammalian species, including humans, thereby increasing the risk of a human influenza pandemic."
"We believe that the potential role of cats should be considered in official guidelines for controlling the spread of H5N1 virus infection. Most international guidelines currently lack such considerations." "The possible role of cats in the epidemiology of H5N1 virus infection has been largely overlooked by the human- and animal-health communities."
The warning was issued as Defra began a two-day exercise to simulate an outbreak of bird flu in Britain. Hundreds of people are taking part in Exercise Hawthorn, a scenario in which a highly pathogenic form of the virus is identified on a free-range farm in Norfolk before spreading to the North of England and South Wales.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu was found in domestic poultry in Germany today, in only the second case to be identified in farmed birds in Europe. France was the first EU country to report an H5N1 outbreak on a farm in February.
The virus was brought to Germany by wild, migrating birds in February but had not infected any farmed poultry. More than 16,000 turkeys, chickens and geese will be culled in the farm in Wermsdorf, near Leipzig, health officials said. - times online.co.uk

BBC reports An exercise to test plans for an avian flu outbreak occurs
just as a real outbreak is reported - what are the chances?

Swan find halts bird flu test-run
5 April 2006 - [my note: same day as the actual start of the exercise]
An exercise to test plans for an avian flu outbreak in Britain has been cancelled following the discovery of the H5 virus in a dead swan in Fife. Exercise Hawthorn was halted by Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds. She said the decision would divert all resources to the situation in Scotland, adding officials were "already in a high state of readiness".
Preliminary tests have found the H5 virus in a sample from the swan but the exact strain is not yet known. Ms Reynolds said she had "every confidence that officials north and south of the border will work together to manage this incident successfully".
Hundreds of vets and farmers were taking part in Exercise Hawthorn, an office-based initiative set three days into a hypothetical outbreak of avian influenza in poultry. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in London was running it with control centres in Bury St Edmunds, Leeds, Cardiff and Gloucester. The exercise was checking safeguards are enough to prevent an epidemic.
Farm 'outbreak'
It also involved the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Environment Agency, Downing Street, the Ministry of Defence, and other government departments. Veterinary and farming groups were among the dozens of other organisations involved, also including groups from the shooting and pigeon-racing sectors. Animal welfare charity the RSPCA, the EU, and foreign governments also took part.
The exercise was based on a scenario in which bird flu was found on a free-range poultry farm in Norfolk, with suspected cases at a turkey farm in the north of England and at an egg production unit in south Wales.
Last October, a similar test focused on making sure the necessary IT facilities were in place. - BBC

Exercise Hawthorn, the UK exercise for
Avian Influenza was to take place 5/6th April

Exercise Hawthorn, the UK exercise for Avian Influenza has been brought to an end by the UK’s Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds.

Please see the Avian Influenza website and news release for further information.

Exercise Hawthorn is a simulation exercise only.

Introduction

The Government, in partnership with the Devolved Administrations, will be undertaking a real-time simulation of an outbreak of avian influenza disease in poultry in this country on the 5/6 April 2006 in order to check its contingency plans for the control of any such outbreak and those of its agencies and operational partners. This exercise will be the culmination of a programme of smaller tabletop exercises and workshops.

Aim

The aim of Exercise Hawthorn is to review, check and update the Government’s current contingency plans for a national outbreak of avian influenza and thereby establish the current state of readiness for such an outbreak whilst identifying improvements in the plans, instructions, structures and procedures employed in managing an outbreak.

Scope

The exercise programme will check the contingency arrangements laid out in Defra’s Avian Influenza Contingency Plan through a series of rehearsals and exercises at strategic, tactical and operational levels and will include key operational partners.

The objective is to identify any areas within the plans that require further revision and/or improvement. Where possible, it also seeks to include the associated plans of Defra’s key operational partners and those of the Devolved Administrations, in order that a co-ordinated and joined-up approach to the management of an outbreak can be demonstrated.

The programme will culminate in a two day real-time exercise planned for April 2006.

About the Exercise

Business case

Aims and objectives

Deliverables and outcomes

Communications plan

How will this be achieved?

The live exercise planned for April 2006 is preceded by a programme of tabletop exercises and workshops which are being held between October 2005 and February 2006. Each of these will focus on a different element of preparedness. This approach aims to focus learning before the actual exercise thus capturing participant’s enthusiasm and commitment. In this way we build up our understanding and knowledge, contribute to staff training and encourage the constructive development of policy.

The first exercise within this programme was held on 7 October and focussed on IT/data processes and how they should function during an outbreak of avian influenza disease. Some issues were identified and work has already been commissioned to address these.

A number of tabletop exercises were held to explore the decision-making and communications issues at suspicion and confirmation of disease. The output from the tabletop exercises will be played forward into the final real-time exercise.

Additionally, the Veterinary Laboratories Agency held a desktop exercise to test their initial response to an outbreak and also to project forward a scenario several weeks into an outbreak in order to check capability and capacity issues arising from possible sero-surveillance requirements.

Preparatory exercises were held on the following dates:

January 2006 Suspicion of disease - Tabletop Exercise

February 2006 Confirmation of disease - Tabletop Exercise

February 2006 Initial response/capacity – Desktop Exercise

The cumulative learning and increased emergency preparedness achieved as a result of this programme of exercises will feed into the final live exercise on 5/6 April 2006. The planning and preparatory work, in advance of April, is specifically designed to provide a challenging, well supported scenario with enough detailed data to support a worthwhile national exercise.

Exercise Concept

The exercise provides an opportunity to test contingency plans and operational instructions for dealing with the management of an outbreak of avian influenza in poultry in Great Britain and in particular will examine public health issues arising from the animal disease control operations. The exercise will test a full day of the so called ‘battle rhythm’ set out in Defra’s Exotic Animal Disease Generic Contingency Plan. Appropriate structures will be established including the National and Local Disease Control Centres and a meeting of the Civil Contingencies Committee (Officials) in order to adequately test the three command levels (strategic, tactical and operational) of the contingency plan.

The exercise will operate using the provisions of the new EU Avian Influenza Directive and two recent EU SCOFCAH decisions on protection measures to be applied in the case of avian influenza being found in wild birds or poultry. It should be noted that although the Directive has yet to be transposed into UK law, the control policies examined in the exercise are those that would be applied in the event of an outbreak of AI in this country. Operational Instructions used during the exercise will necessarily reflect this situation but are not those that are currently being used by the State Veterinary Service.

There will be no on-farm activity during the exercise. The exercise play will be confined to the National and Local Disease Control Centres and the Emergency Coordination Centre Wales. There will be no involvement of the military nor will any emergency contracts be invoked.

Outline scenario

Avian influenza is a highly infectious viral disease affecting the respiratory, digestive and/or nervous system of many species of birds. It is caused by a Type A influenza virus. There are two forms of the virus, low pathogenicity (LPAI) and high pathogenicity (HPAI). The virus can be spread by direct contact with secretions from infected birds, especially faeces, contaminated feed, water, equipment and clothing. The disease is not spread through the air.

The exercise scenario is set at the beginning of March in the midst of the annual human flu cycle. The Avian Influenza outbreak affecting poultry will run concurrently with the normal seasonal human flu virus in circulation. The exercise will focus primarily on controls for eradication of the disease from the domestic bird population including reducing the risk of spread within the animal population. It will also test controls for minimising the risk of a human pandemic strain emerging as well as the human occupational health issues arising from a zoonotic infection. The exercise is set three days into an outbreak.

Summary of events up to Day 3 of the simulated outbreak

An outbreak of suspect highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) occurred in a high density, outdoor, free-range production unit in Norfolk. An avian influenza type A virus (H5N1 strain) was identified in laboratory tests and disease was confirmed on Day 0 of the outbreak. The Norfolk farm was confirmed as the first infected premises (IP). In line with intense media coverage of the outbreak a number of additional suspect cases have been reported by farmers, vets and the public to Animal Health Offices across the country. The majority have been negated following initial veterinary inspection. Of those where it was necessary to take samples, interim laboratory results were negative in all cases for notifiable avian disease. However, the outbreak scenario has further progressed with two highly suspect cases being reported on Day 2: a turkey farm in the North of England and a egg production unit in South Wales on the border with England. Preliminary results are expected for both these report cases at the start of the live exercise.

Exercise process – 5/6 April

The National Disease Control Centre will be based in Defra’s building at 1A Page Street, London with the tactical level Joint Coordination Centre established on the 8th Floor. Local Disease Control Centres will also be established in State Veterinary Service Animal Health Divisional Offices at Bury St Edmunds, Leeds, Cardiff and Gloucester. During the exercise, participants are expected to perform tasks as outlined in their instructions and plans. Activity will be prompted by messages or ‘injects’ fed into the exercise by control teams based in each location. These messages will require a response by an individual or team. Participants are expected to follow their instructions and proactively work with other individuals or teams as necessary and as they would in a real outbreak situation. Exercise evaluators will track progress throughout the exercise and record outcomes.

An exercise report identifying lessons to be learned will be published in the summer of 2006.

actually they seem to happen all the time:
it has been revealed
WTC/ Pentagon attacks on 9/11 occured on the same day as several anti terror drills were set to take place involving a scenario of multiple hijacked airliners
London Bombings on 7/7 occured on the same day as a run-through / crisis management drill was set to take place of multiple underground train strikes
Just a co-incidence [a media-managed one!]

my note:
in a televised interview [BBC news 24] Farmer Donald Teddie [mentioned below] stated that he has had no contact from the authorities - NO ADVICE - it is also apparent that the dead swan was found by Local resident Tina Briscoe, a FULL WEEK before the reports were made and it was in a state of decomposition...

Chicken farmer slams alert response
April 06, 2006 - The owner of the only commercial poultry farm within the bird flu surveillance zone in Fife has criticised the official response to the scare.
Donald Teddie operates Kilduncan Poultry Farm at Kingsbarns, just under six miles from Cellardyke, where a dead swan was found to have been carrying the pathogenic H5 virus.
[MY note: see report below* a day later - which states tests are still being carried out!]
An official protection zone has been thrown up 1.8 miles around the discovery site in the village's harbour restricting movements of all eggs inside, as well as a surveillance area up to six miles away. - icwestlothian.icnetwork.co.u

Poultry farmer says authorities 'slow to respond'
(Filed: 07/04/2006)
• Donald Peddie, the owner of the only commercial poultry farm inside the 10km (six-mile) bird flu 'surveillance zone' in Fife, said the authorities were slow to respond to the scare. Mr Peddie, who runs the Kilduncan farm at Kingsbarns, six miles from Cellardyke, and has a flock of 22,000 chickens, said he learned of the incident on television.
'The Veterinary Office phoned me at 8am this morning checking that their restrictions were up to date. I think there are questions about how the information came out. I would have expected to be contacted a bit earlier.'
Mr Peddie said that as soon as he was alerted, he put in place a cleaning regime for his staff of four at the entrance to each chicken barn.
- telegraph.co.uk

tests still being carried out on swan found a week ago:

Scottish bird-flu swan found a week ago
06/04/2006 - 07:22:54 AM The swan feared to have died of the deadly strain of bird flu in Scotland was found more than a week ago on a harbour slipway, it emerged today.
*Tests were being carried out today on the dead bird, which was discovered in the village of Cellardyke in Fife.
The swan has tested positive for the "highly pathogenic H5 avian flu" and it will be confirmed today if it had the deadly H5N1 strain, which can be fatal to humans.
Checkpoints remained in place this morning on roads leading out of the village, with officers ensuring any vehicle containing poultry or poultry products did not leave the area.
Speaking at the harbour in Cellardyke where the bird was found, Sergeant Martin Johncock, of Fife Police, said the decomposed body of the bird had been taken away for tests last Wednesday.
"At the moment we have a three-kilometre exclusion zone around Cellardyke Harbour. "We are stopping vehicles which could be used to carry any form of poultry or poultry products such as eggs, which could potentially come from infected birds within the area. "There are no large bird-rearing areas or anything similar in this particular area but we are just making sure that everything just stays confined until we hear the results of the tests.
"Hopefully those results will emerge today, but that is a matter for Defra."
- Ireland Online

same day - 7 minutes later: swan found a week ago has H5NI virus

Bird flu risk in humans 'extremely low'
THURSDAY 6th April 2006 - 07:30am
There is no risk to public health from bird flu, the Scottish Executive said today. Despite confirmation that
a swan found dead last week had the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus, the Chief Medical Officer said the risk of the disease passing to humans was "extremely low".
Chief veterinary officer Charles Milne told an Edinburgh press conference that a "wild bird risk area" would be set up in a 2,500-square kilometre area to the east of the M90 motorway. Within this area were 175 registered poultry premises with more than 50 birds, he said. And in total, the area contained 3.1 million birds, of which 260,000 were free-range. "We are proposing to issue a veterinary directive to owners of poultry to house their birds where possible," he said.
If this was not possible, they would be expected to put in place measures to separate their birds from wild birds. Gatherings of birds in that area would be banned, and there would be enhanced surveillance of wild birds, he said.
Mr Milne said there were currently 14 cases of birds being checked for bird flu from Scotland. These included 12 swans and two other species.
He added: "There is no indication that any of these are positive." Two more swans have since been found dead sparking fears that the bird flu virus has spread.
The two latest birds, recovered by rangers in the last 24 hours in Richmond Park, Glasgow, have been sent to a veterinary centre for tests to determine whether they had the deadly HN51 strain of the virus. They were reported to Glasgow City Council by a member of the public.
Meanwhile, six dead swans were today reported to authorities in Northern Ireland in the wake of a confirmed case of bird flu in Scotland. The Government said four carcasses were recovered in Portglenone, Co Antrim, and two in Moira, Co Down, this morning. The remains will be tested at the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's headquarters in Belfast in a move that has been standard practice for some time.
Bert Houston, chief veterinary officer for DARD, confirmed officials were working closely with their Scottish counterparts following the positive test in Fife. - dailymail.co.uk

don't panic! honest guv!
"The swan was reported after 5pm on 29 March "

Bird flu swan 'domestic species'
2006/04/06 10:26:24 GMT - The swan found dead from bird flu in a Scottish village may have been infected by another bird in the country.
Scotland's chief medical officer said it was thought the bird was a native mute swan, which does not migrate.
Experts believe it is likely the domestic swan contracted the virus by mixing with another infected bird. Test results have confirmed that the swan died from the H5N1 strain of the virus, the first case seen in the UK. The H5N1 strain can be fatal to humans.
On Wednesday, an initial 1.8 mile (3km) protection zone was set up around the village of Cellardyke, where the swan was found and, on Thursday afternoon, a surveillance zone was extended to 965 sq miles (2,500 sq km). Patrols have been stepped up by police around the zones, with vehicles being stopped and checked, along with poultry farms.
Chief Veterinary Officer Charles Milne confirmed that the swan's body had been partially eaten but added there was no evidence to suggest this had been done by a domestic animal such as a pet cat or dog. He advised the public to report any dead birds they spotted and stressed that they should not go near them. "They should not pick up or approach dead birds but should report it," he said.
'Lack of urgency'
Ian Thomson, bird expert from the East Lothian Ranger Service, told BBC Scotland that another bird was likely to have carried the virus to UK shores. He said: "Mute swans are residents in Britain therefore it is very unlikely that this bird brought the avian flu here. "It would have had to have transferred from another bird, that type of bird is open to debate."
The swan was discovered eight days ago by a local woman who was walking near-by. She told BBC Scotland that she was concerned by the lack of urgency shown by the authorities initially.
Locals reportedly spotted the dead bird floating around in the water for several days, with one woman saying she had seen seagulls pecking at it.
Tina Briscoe, 68, who works at St Andrew's University, found the dead swan washed on the shore at the pier. She said: "When I found the dead bird, I called the police, who told me to phone the RSPB, who in turn told me to phone Defra. It was over 12 hours later when someone came to collect the bird. "It was left on the harbour all night which really worried me, I would have thought immediate action was needed. My worry was that if other birds or dogs or cats had picked at it, then they might spread something."
However Mr Milne defended the length of time it took to remove the bird. He said: "The swan was reported after 5pm on 29 March and it was collected the next day between working hours. "The procedures were followed fully and the timeline could not have been tighter."
Leading microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington urged the public not to worry about any personal health risk. He told BBC Scotland that the number of people who have died from bird flu had been very small compared to the millions of birds who have perished. Prof Pennington said: "It is something we have been expecting as this virus has been very good at getting around the world. "It is worth noting that the number of human cases around the world has been very small compared to the amount of virus that has been doing the rounds both in wild birds and commercial. "It's not a virus that's a threat to the British population - you have to have extremely close contact with the birds to be at risk. "The only people in Britain who are at risk from this virus - and that's if it got a hold of the poultry industry - would be people looking after those poultry, people going in hen houses and the vets making any diagnosis."
Rural Affairs Minister Ross Finnie told BBC Scotland that there was no need for panic. "This is a very serious situation but it is a situation where we need to look at the evidence, deal with it rationally and put all of the planning measures that we have been rehearsing for some time into place, but without inducing a general state of panic."
The H5N1 virus does not at present pose a large-scale threat to humans, as it cannot pass easily from one person to another.
However, experts fear the virus could mutate to gain this ability, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk. BBC

Swan discovery woman's delay fear
Thursday, 6 April 2006, 09:47 GMT 10:47 UK -
The woman who spotted a dead swan which has tested positive for bird flu has spoken of her concern at a lack of urgency shown by the authorities. Tina Briscoe, 68, who works at St Andrew's University, spotted the dead bird at Cellardyke harbour in Fife. She reported last Wednesday's discovery along with Cellardyke resident Dan Young, 45, who described the bird as "a mangled heap of feathers".
Both expressed surprise at a 12-hour delay in the removal of the bird.
But Chief Veterinary Officer Charles Milne has defended the time it took to confirm bird flu infection. He said: "The procedures were followed fully and the timeline could not have been tighter."
'Pretty mangled'
Mrs Briscoe said that when she contacted police, she was told to contact an animal welfare charity. "They said if it was a heron it would be all right, as it might have died of natural causes, but if it was a swan it needed to be reported to Defra or a local vet," Mrs Briscoe said. The St Andrews University technician added that the dead bird looked brown and "pretty mangled". "It was reported in the evening to Defra and they collected the bird around lunchtime the following day," she said. "I would have expected a quicker reaction, particularly because in the tidal water it could have been washed away, or cats could have picked on it."
Dan Young said he had been alerted by a friend, who said he thought a heron was lying in the harbour. The 45-year-old said: "I went and had a look and it was obviously not a heron. "It looked to me like a swan. "I contacted Defra and within an hour the duty vet got back to me asking where it was and saying they would pick it up."
'Bit of anxiety'
Mr Young added: "It had obviously been dead for a while, a few days probably. It looked like a mangled heap of feathers and it had been in the water for a while. "It had obviously been pecked at or eaten by something. It was torn open." Asked if he suspected immediately that the swan could be a victim of bird flu, he added: "Obviously it's at the back of everybody's mind at the moment."
Mr Young said he had not physically touched the bird but admitted he had "a bit of anxiety" about the discovery. - bbc.co.uk

why would the BBC omit Dan Youngs ties to the University of St Andrews?

Dan Young, a researcher at the University of St Andrews, who reported the dead swan to the authorities, said: "It had obviously been dead for a while, a few days probably. "It looked like a mangled heap of feathers. It had been in the water for a while. It had obviously been pecked at or eaten by something. It was torn open."
Bird-flu fear grips Britain after H5N1 strain kills swan Mail & Guardian Online [06 April 2006]

Mr Dan Young Research Fellow Bio Molecular Science
Centre for Biomolecular Sciences
Research at the CBMS seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms of disease such as the interplay of pathogens with their hosts, mechanisms of DNA repair and other molecular events related to cancer, a mechanistic understanding if microbial enzymes leading to drug development and the discovery of small molecule modulators of cellular function. - biologybk.st-and.ac.uk

BBC reports Dan Young as a resident & Tina Briscoe as a University worker
Tina Briscoe, 68, who works at St Andrew's University, spotted the dead bird at Cellardyke harbour in Fife. She reported last Wednesday's discovery along with Cellardyke resident Dan Young, 45, who described the bird as "a mangled heap of feathers".
BBC

This report again on the 7th April, suggests Tina Briscoe reported the bird directly to police
"The swan was found on Cellardyke harbour slipway last Wednesday but not removed until the following day, while confirmation that it had the "highly pathogenic" H5N1 strain only came yesterday. St Andrews University technician Tina Briscoe, who contacted police after spotting the bird last Wednesday, said she was initially told to contact an animal welfare charity.
She said: "It was reported in the evening to Defra and they collected the bird around lunchtime, about 12.30 or so, the following day. I would have expected a quicker reaction, particularly because in the tidal water it could have been washed away or cats could have picked on it." - yorkshiretoday

is this the truth?
Children still play on village's beach
By David Lister, Scotland Correspondent April 7th - 2006
NOBODY knew how long the dead swan had been lying on the slipway or, before that, for how many days it had been bobbing about in the harbour.
Just about every child in Cellardyke had seen it by the time it was removed. Lauren McKay, 9, walked past it but mistook it for a dead heron. Amy Young, 11, saw it as she played with a friend on the beach. Mark Mackenzie, 15, cycled past it. "I saw this white thing on the slipway but I never thought anything of it," he said.
Even yesterday, after the swan had been confirmed as carrying the H5N1 strain of bird flu, some local people were happy to let their children play on the tiny beach. Anita McKay, 67, watched as her two grandchildren made their way on to the sand. "I feel that we're safer than any other place because of all these restrictions that have been put on us," she said. There was an absence of panic in Cellardyke yesterday. Women pushing prams along the seafront tried not to collide with a young girl on rollerskates. A police officer smiled as a resident complained about the extra cars in the village. Around the corner children built sandcastles as their mother enjoyed the sunshine.
Nobody was surprised when a dead swan appeared in the harbour, probably at the start of last week after a series of high tides. Celia Young, 46, said: "You see dead seabirds from time to time, so you don't take any notice. One of our neighbours thought it was a plastic bag."
Only Tina Briscoe, 68, was worried enough to telephone police after spotting the bird last Wednesday. When they told her to contact the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Ms Briscoe spoke to a friend, Dan Young, 45, who telephoned the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Mr Young, a research fellow at the University of St Andrews, Fife, said that the bird had "obviously been dead for a while". He added: "It looked like a mangled heap of feathers. It had obviously been pecked at or eaten by something." Ms Briscoe said that she was surprised it had taken so long to remove the bird. "It was reported in the evening and they collected the bird around lunchtime the following day," she said.
Despite the relaxed atmosphere in Cellardyke, there was concern over the lack of information and the danger to the tourist industry. Police maintained a low-profile presence on nearby roads, stopping only farm vehicles seeking to enter or leave a 3km radius protection zone. Donald Peddie, whose poultry farm is just inside a 10km radius surveillance zone, said there were no signs of infection among his 22,000 battery hens.
The Times was contacted last night by a jogger who had saw a dead swan less than ten miles from Cellardyke. Matthew Swarbrick, 26, reported the bird to Defra at 10.30am but was still waiting to hear from officials. Last night the bird had not been removed. - timesonline.co.uk

watching any news report on UK TV it is plain to see the News Media are ALL over the small town... in their hundreds...
why didn't news media simply report that Tina Briscoe became alarmed and contacted a friend from University [Dan Young] who was in a relevent dept...and that he came and examined the Swan and rang Defra...?
was this bad reporting simply to hide DEFRAs neglegence?

at the time...The TV was rolling this news as the top story constantly
while it's presenters stoke the fear levels ...they present themselves
as wary of the very thing they are guilty of

Note COBRA have met after ONE bird has been found?
Note: Blair was helicoptered away from the G8 to meet COBRA after the 7/7 bombings

COBRA are supposed to RESPOND to a national crisis -
but are they - along with the News Media helping to MANAGE our perception of one?

CALM IS URGED!
MILLIONS COULD DIE HORRIBLY!

Calm is urged over bird flu case
7th April 2006 - A minister has warned against the temptation to "turn a drama into a crisis" over the discovery of H5N1 bird flu in a dead swan in Scotland.
Scottish Rural Affairs Minister Ross Finnie said the case was being dealt with in "proportion".
First Minister Jack McConnell is not planning to rush back from a visit to New York, with officials not wanting to promote panic and harm tourism. Nine birds in Scotland tested for H5N1 have so far been declared negative. Five more birds are the subject of routine tests north of the border. Experts are warning the swan may not be an isolated case, with surveillance zones in force around Cellardyke, Fife, where the dead swan was found.
Mr Finnie told a press conference: "One thing we are trying very hard to do, to borrow that insurance phrase, is 'not turn a drama into a crisis'." He said Mr McConnell's decision not to return in haste was "right and proper" as he did not want to inadvertently give the impression that Scotland was in a major "disease situation".
On Friday Cobra - the government committee which leads responses to national crises - met to review measures being taken.
The Scottish National Party is calling for the tests to be speeded up after it was revealed it took more than a week for the first case to be confirmed. Meanwhile talks are to be held between farmers' leaders and the Scottish Executive on how to contain bird flu.
The H5N1 virus does not at present pose a large-scale threat to humans, as it cannot pass easily from one person to another. But experts fear the virus could mutate to gain this ability, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.
The Scottish Executive has extended surveillance zones in Scotland to include 175 properties with 3.1 million birds, as well as free-range poultry. About 48 are free-range premises with 260,000 birds. An initial 1.8 mile (3km) protection zone was set up around Cellardyke on Wednesday, surrounded by a six-mile (10km) surveillance zone. Farmers in the affected area are being ordered to house their birds where possible, or separate them from wild birds and gatherings of birds are prohibited. Restrictions on the movement of poultry, eggs and other poultry products have been implemented.
But Mr Finnie attacked as "irresponsible" the Waitrose supermarket chain's statement that none of its poultry or eggs came from Scotland. The supermarket said its answer to a media question had been misinterpreted, that it was not suggesting Scottish chicken and eggs could pass on the disease, and that when it opened supermarkets in Scotland in the summer they would use local produce.
Some experts are calling for a programme of poultry vaccination to be introduced should a cluster of cases emerge.
There are 14 birds being tested for bird flu from Scotland include 12 swans and two other species, although there have been no indications they have the disease. Three dead seagulls found at a boating lake in Gloucester are also being tested for the disease. A city council spokesman said they were being tested as a precaution and the risk of the gulls having died of bird flu was "minimal".
But Professor Albert Osterhaus, who advised on measures for a mass outbreak of the virus in the Netherlands three years ago, said it was a strong possibility more cases would be found. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) responded to criticism over the delay in dealing with the dead swan by saying there had been no reason to suggest it should be given priority over other samples. "It is vital that test results are accurate and, because of the badly decomposed state of this sample, a number of tests were carried out," said a Defra spokesman. He said since 21 February the laboratory at Weybridge in Surrey had tested more than 1,100 samples. - bbc.co.uk

wild birds now at risk...er hang on [check up this page to the wild duck story!]

Avian flu: wild birds, pets and poultry now at risk

This picture of A seagull in Cellardyke, Fife. by Danny Lawson/PA was all over the news media

More swans tested amid fears deadly virus will spread across UK
Sandra Laville and Ian Sample Friday April 7, 2006 The Guardian
The lethal avian flu virus found in a swan in Scotland is almost certain to spread to wild birds across the UK before threatening Britain's poultry industry, experts warned yesterday. Their prediction came as a further 14 swans were being tested for the deadly H5N1 virus that scientists yesterday confirmed had killed the mute swan found in the village of Cellardyke in Fife.
The investigation has now shifted focus to how the bird became infected.
Professor Albert Osterhaus, an expert on avian flu at Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, told the Guardian Britain could now expect to see a similar spread of bird flu as has been witnessed in Germany. There the virus has spread slowly among wild birds but yesterday reached a poultry farm. Prof Osterhaus warned the virus could also spread through domestic cats and be passed on by them to poultry farms.
Bob McCracken, a former president of the British Veterinary Association, said: "We have to accept the situation that the virus will be spreading among wild birds in the Fife area and probably through time will spread to other parts of the UK. That's the reality."
Yesterday farmers outside a six-mile surveillance zone already in place in Fife, were ordered to move free-range and organic poultry inside. The precaution was in addition to instructions to the owners of millions of birds within the zone to restrict the transport of poultry products to isolate them from wild flocks.
There were recriminations during the day from local people at the speed with which the authorities had removed and tested the contaminated carcass, which was seen moving with the tide in the village's small harbour for days. It was not until Thursday last week that the partially eaten remains were removed by the Scottish authorities for tests.
Tina Briscoe, a university researcher who raised the alarm after spotting the dead bird, said: "It was reported in the evening to Defra and they collected the bird around lunchtime, about 12.30 or so, the following day. I would have expected a quicker reaction, particularly because in the tidal water it could have been washed away or cats could have picked on it."
The H5N1 strain of avian flu has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003, but as yet it has not mutated to be able to spread from human to human. A Home Office report said this week that up to 320,000 people could die if a pandemic struck Britain. Symptoms include a sore throat, aching muscles, lethargy, eye infections, breathing problems and chest pain. Deterioration in patients with the H5N1 strain can happen quickly, and within a few days they can be dead.
But Dr Harry Burns, the chief medical officer for Scotland, insisted the risk to the public was extremely low. "It is no greater today than it was last week or last month. Nothing has changed. This is an avian incident, the risk of this particular virus passing to humans is extremely low." He said people should not be concerned about eating poultry products, such as chicken or eggs, if they were properly cooked.
Charles Milne, Scotland's chief vet, defended the speed with which the dead bird had been tested. "There were a series of laboratory procedures that needed to be gone through," he said.
The National Farmers Union said although the presence of H5N1 was unwelcome it was well prepared. "All of the contingency plans that we have for avian influenza have been drawn up on the basis that the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain would reach the UK sooner or later," a spokesman said.
If the virus spreads to the poultry population, as some predict, birds on infected premises will be culled to stop the spread of the disease. But mass bird vaccination is not expected. - guardian.co.uk

wild birds causing the outbreak [according to Farmer]

Egg farmer's plea for common sense
David Hogg - 07 April 2006 - yorkshiretoday.co.uk
ONE of Yorkshire's largest free range egg producers has said he has contingency plans to meet his suppliers' needs but would "face an uncertain future" if he had to cull his stock because of bird flu.
Roger Potter's 450-acre dedicated free-range farm in North Yorkshire has thrived since it opened in 1984 but now it faces the possibility of Government restrictions and unease in the poultry market. He has urged the public to continue buying eggs as there is "no risk" of infection - calls backed by environmental groups and unions
"I would urge people to use their common sense," said Mr Potter, who runs Yorkshire Farmhouse Eggs, at Catton, near Thirsk. "Avian Flu is primarily a disease of wild birds and previous European outbreaks have been small, isolated and quickly dealt with. The Asian outbreak showed people have to be in very close contact with contaminated poultry and there is no risk to the public. "As a producer I feel very confident in the preparations we have taken and our customers feel confident in knowing all our eggs are sourced locally from our farm with the highest level of quality control."
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) ran a mock exercise on Mr Potter's farm recently which simulated how they would follow the paper trail of infected birds. But officials have not told him to change his business practice since then.
"We are not in an infected area, there is no vaccination programme and we have not been told to keep our birds in," he said. "In essence it is business as usual. Obviously it is a concern that it has reached these shores. It is a worry because it's our livelihood. Defra can't afford to get this wrong. "We have to do what Defra says. I would like to vaccinate. They have already started vaccinating in Europe so surely if it became a major threat here we would do the same?"
Mr Potter said he could take his birds indoors if instructed to by Defra but if he does so for longer than 12 weeks he may not be able to market them as free range, even though they would be housed in his specially-adapted sheds with dust-bathing areas and extra room to move around.
"That would have a really bad effect upon us," he admitted.
"All our overheads are based upon free-range prices. The eggs would still have to be collected by hand."
And it would be worse if a cull of his flock was enforced, although he could implement emergency plans to keep his customers supplied with free range eggs from other sources.
"We would be out for at least a year if we were forced to totally re-stock," he said. "It's a worry and we'd face an uncertain future. Hopefully this is an isolated case and there is a fair chance it could blow over."
Chris Kaufman, Transport and General Workers' Union national secretary for agriculture, said it was important to "keep the one case in proportion". "No-one should be complacent. But, equally, one case should not make a whole industry vulnerable," he added.
The union called on the Government to risk assess poultry hatcheries and provide financial support for any workers laid off by the bird flu outbreak.
And British consumers were urged yesterday to keep eating poultry by the Soil Association. Poultry adviser Anna Jonas said: "As long as you are not drinking the raw blood of chickens, then your risks are very low. We are talking about a disease of birds not humans."
The association said shutting flocks indoors might be necessary but warned farmers faced a "rapid cull" of their stocks if infected.
The Government told the association, which has called for strategic vaccination to contain any outbreak, it wanted to avoid the "mass culling and medieval funeral pyres" of foot-and-mouth.

Factory Farming causing the outbreak [according to environmentalist]

Industry caused the flu; why blame wild birds?
ASHOK B SHARMA - Financial Express - Monday, March 06, 2006
Not just in India, industrial poultry is the cause of the spread of the bird flu outbreak worldwide.
Several studies show that transnational poultry industry is the root cause of the problem. The spread of industrial poultry production and trade networks have created ideal conditions for the emergence and transmission of lethal viruses like the H5N1 strains of bird flu.
Inside factory farms viruses becomes lethal and multiply. Air thick with viral load from infected factory farms is carried for kilometres, while integrated trade networks spread the disease through many carriers like live birds and chicken manure.
Comparatively, the backyard poultry are not fuelling the current wave of bird flu outbreaks stalking large parts of the world. The epicentre of the outbreaks is the factory farms of China and South East Asia. While wild migratory birds can carry the virus, at least for short distances, the viruses are spread by the unhygienic factor farms, global studies said.
This situation is very true in case of the recent outbreak of bird flu in India. The epicentre of the outbreak was in 18 factory farms in and around Navapur in Maharashtra, where there are no sanctuary for migratory birds in the vicinity.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in November 2005 said, "To date, extensive testing of clinically normal migratory birds in the infected countries has not produced any positive results for H5N1 so far." Even with the current cases of H5N1 in wild birds in Europe, experts agree these birds probably contacted the virus in the Black Sea region, where H5N1 is well established in poultry, and died while heading westward to escape the unusually cold conditions.
The attributed reasons for the spread of H5N1 virus by migratory birds among geese in Qinghai Lake in north China was negated by the BirdLife International which pointed out that the lake has many surrounding poultry farms. It has also integrated fish farms where chicken faeces are commonly used as feed and manure. Besides, rail routes connect the region to the areas of bird flu outbreaks like Lanzhou.
Wild migratory birds and backyard poultry are the victims and not carrier of the disease. The geographical spread of the disease does not match with migratory routes and seasons, the BirdLife International report said.
A study done by a global organisation, Grain shows that migratory birds and backyard poultry are not effective vectors of bird flu. For example, in Malaysia, the mortality rate from H5N1 among village chicken is only 5%, indicating that the virus has a hard time spreading among small scale chicken flocks. H5N1 outbreaks in Laos, which is surrounded by infected countries, have only occurred in the nation's few factory farms, which was supplied by Thai hatcheries.
The only case of bird flu in backyard poultry, which account for over 90% of Laos production, occurred next to infected factory farms.
The lethal bird flu outbreaks took place in large factory farms in Netherlands in 2003, Japan in 2004 and Egypt in 2006. The Nigerian outbreak earlier this year occurred in a single factory farm distant from hot spots of migratory birds, but known for importing unregulated hatchable eggs.
In September 2004, Cambodian authorities noted that the source of bird flu outbreak was chicks supplied by the Thai company, Charoen Pokphand. This company dominates the feed industry and is the biggest supplier of chicks to China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Turkey, which have witnessed bird flu outbreaks. Ukraine, where bird flu occurred, imported 12 million live birds in 2004.
Russian authorities pointed out that feed as one of the main suspected sources of an H5N1 outbreak at a large factory farm in Kurgan province.
A newsletter of e-Pharmail said the outbreak of avian flu in Maharashtra may be due to inoculating improperly cultured vaccine (inactivated viruses) in poultry, allegedly distributed by Venkateshwara Hatcheries. - financial Express

new food safety rules...
but earlier, when outbreaks occured abroad
some were stipulating the raw meat was safe!

New rules issued to ensure food safety
By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Published: 07 April 2006
Restaurants have been told to stop preparing gourmet dishes consisting of raw eggs and half-cooked poultry to eliminate any risk of catching bird flu. The Food Standards Agency is advising the food industry and the public only to serve meat where the juices run clear and eggs that have solid whites.
The guidelines rule out the making of fresh mayonnaise and mousses with raw eggs and the serving of poultry cooked rare, such as duck pink in the middle. Mousses and mayonnaise sold in supermarkets are made with (safe) pasteurised egg.
The agency issued the advice - which may be resisted by some restaurateurs - as poultry farmers anticipate sales falling in response to confirmation of Britain's outbreak of H5N1 yesterday. Supermarkets said it was too early to forecast the impact of the virus but the British Poultry Council expected a "dip" until confidence recovered.
Sales of poultry on mainland Europe plunged by as much as 80 per cent in the weeks after cases of avian flu were discovered in Turkey. France said last month its poultry industry, the largest in Europe, was losing £27m a month.
As scientists checked the test results on a dead swan in Scotland yesterday, the directors of the FSA met to discuss the issuing of advice to the public. Afterwards, the FSA chairwoman Deirdre Hutton issued a statement mixing assurance about food safety and a warning to cook poultry properly. Bird flu is not considered to be a food-borne disease but is transmitted to people in close contact with infected birds.
Dame Deirdre said: "If you wish to eat poultry and eggs you should continue to do so, following the normal precautions of cooking thoroughly and by that we mean cooking until there are no red juices, or in the case of eggs, cooking until the white is hard. "And that advice applies to cooking chickens generally, not just because of the possibility of avian flu."
On eggs specifically, the Food Standards Agency warned: "People should not eat raw eggs or use raw eggs in dishes that will not be cooked." The agency said independent experts had advised runny yolks could be eaten, in contrast to the World Health Organisation, which stipulated that both egg whites and yolks should be solid. The FSA advises anyone handling poultry to wash their hands thoroughly and clean surfaces and utensils in contact with poultry.
The British Poultry Council (BPA) said farmers were "concerned but calm" about the threat to sales. Britain produces 850 million chickens for eating every year and the poultry industry employs 76,000 people. It is worth £3bn a year. Jeremy Blackburn, BPA executive officer, said the discovery of avian flu cases on mainland Europe had led to short "blitzes" on sales in Britain. "I would be surprised if there wasn't a slight dip," he said.
Tesco, Sainsbury and Waitrose said there was no major dip in UK sales after the European outbreaks. - Independent UK

tests negative

Birds test negative for avian flu
7.52PM, Fri Apr 7 2006
Tests on nine birds for avian flu in Scotland have proved negative following the discovery of the H5N1 strain in a dead swan. A Scottish Executive spokeswoman was unable to say if the total number of birds being tested is still 14, or if that number has increased or diminished since yesterday.
The deadly H5N1 strain of the disease was confirmed in a dead swan in the coastal village of Cellardyke, Fife, yesterday. H5N1 can be fatal to humans but has not been known to pass from person to person.
Authorities have come under fierce criticism over the time it took to collect the swan after a member of the public called to report it and the time it took to confirm the results. The bird was found last Wednesday on the harbour slipway of Cellardyke but was not removed until the following day. Criticism came from the owner of the only commercial poultry farm within the newly-set up bird flu surveillance zone. Donald Peddie, who operates Kilduncan Poultry Farm at Kingsbarns, said he first heard about the bird flu discovery on TV.
A 3km protection zone has been thrown up around the area, along with a surveillance zone of 10km. And a wild bird risk area has been set up in a 2,500 square kilometre area to the east of the M90 motorway and as far north as Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire. Within this area were 175 registered poultry premises with more than 50 birds, they said. In total, the area contains 3.1 million birds, of which 260,000 are free-range.
The current outbreaks of pathogenic avian flu began in south-east Asia in mid-2003. There have been a total of 191 confirmed human cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu reported to the World Health Organisation to date, and 108 human deaths. - itv.com

9 birds test negative

Bird flu experts await more results
Apr 8 2006
Test results on five birds at the centre of a nationwide bird flu scare are expected.
Hopes have risen that a dead swan found in Fife, which was confirmed on Thursday as Britain's first case of the deadly H5N1 strain, could be a one-off after tests on 15 other bird carcasses proved negative.
Out of 14 dead birds discovered in Scotland, where a 1,000-square mile quarantine zone has been imposed, nine have so far received the all clear. - icdunbartonshire.icnetwork.co.uk

er...

JOSE BIRD FLU BLUES
8 April 2006 - CHELSEA boss Jose Mourinho says he's scared of bird flu.
Mourinho yesterday claimed he was more worried about the virus than about title rivals Man Utd. He said: "For me, pressure is bird flu. I'm feeling a lot of pressure with the problem in Scotland. I'm more scared of it than football."
His tongue-in-cheek claim came as officials tried to prevent panic after the virus killed a swan in Fife. - .dailyrecord.co.uk

Easter! what about those chocolate eggs! and those bunnies!

Farmers fear free-range panic in the crucial run-up to Easter
By David Derbyshire and Amy Iggulden (Filed: 08/04/2006)
The poultry industry will be watching for signs of a consumer backlash against chicken and eggs today following confirmation of the first case of H5N1 bird flu in Britain. Easter is traditionally a bumper week for sales of poultry and eggs
As thousands of callers rang the Government's hotline with reports of dead swans, geese, gulls and garden birds, farmers and health officials repeated assurances that there was no risk to public health. The run-up to Easter is traditionally a bumper week for sales of poultry and eggs and a slump in sales could cost the £1.2 billion industry dearly.
Tests were continuing yesterday on the carcases of 14 birds found dead in Scotland over the past few days as the Government's bird flu contingency plan swung into action.
Scientists were ordered to test birds following confirmation on Thursday that a mute swan washed up at Cellardyke, Fife, had died from the H5N1 strain. This has killed millions of birds across the world, mostly in Asia. It has also infected at least 191 people living in close proximity to birds, killing more than half of them.
Although its risk to human health in Britain is thought to be small, there are fears that a pandemic of the disease among wild birds could devastate the poultry industry, which has 270 million birds on more than 22,000 farms.
Yesterday, scientists were concentrating resources on the 965 square mile "wild bird risk area" on the east coast of Scotland between the Firth of Forth and Stonehaven. They are concerned that the swan's death may not be an isolated case.
The farmers of 250,000 free-range poultry in the area were told to put their birds under cover where possible to reduce exposure to wild species.
There has been criticism that officials were slow to act after the swan's body was reported to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on Wednesday last week. Full test results from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey, were released eight days later.
Scotland's rural affairs minister, Ross Finnie, said the laboratory's scientists would be working around the clock to test birds they suspected were infected. The laboratory has tested about 120 birds a week in recent weeks. In the past six months, about 5,000 samples have been analysed. "The laboratory will be working 24/7 and will remain open over the Easter holidays," said Mr Finnie.
The State Veterinary Service - the agency responsible for animal health and welfare - said it had 300 animal health officers and 300 vets ready to work overtime to collect carcases of swans, geese or ducks.
Mr Finnie said there had been an increase in the number of dead birds being reported. But he added: "This is perfectly proper, this is expected. Some of them will be birds that have been attacked by cats in gardens."
By yesterday afternoon almost 2,500 calls had been received on the Defra hotline. Previously it had 600 a week. The line, which was criticised for keeping office hours over the winter, extended its opening times in response to the crisis and is now available from 6am to 10pm every day.
Bird charities were also fielding calls and reported confusion among callers. Swan charities received messages from worried residents who suggested that their flock should be culled. One caller asked if he was within his rights to shoot swans he suspected of having bird flu.
Ken Merriman, the owner of the Swan Rescue Sanctuary in Wimborne, Dorset, said: "It has been manic with people reporting dead swans. It is ridiculous and I am losing my patience."
John Ward, a volunteer at the Swan Sanctuary in Shepperton, Surrey, which has 200 swans on its lake, said: "We were expecting it, but people are saying that we should cull the swans because they fly over houses and could kill families. "They have got this completely out of perspective."
MY NOTE: oooh i wonder why?
But concerns were raised about how the hotline was coping with calls. One caller who found six dead starlings said he was told to "chuck them in the bin". Richard White said he reported the birds, found in his garden in Badsey, Worcs, to Defra. "They showed no interest whatsoever and said they are not migratory, chuck them in the bin."
Health officials played down the risk to humans, stressing that the disease spread to people only from close contact with bird saliva or from breathing in dust from faeces. Dr Alan Hay, the director of the World Health Organisation influenza centre, said: "It's certainly negligible at the moment, given that we really don't know the circumstances whereby this swan contracted the infection, and whether there are any other birds in the area or elsewhere in the country that are infected."
The Food Standards Agency repeated its advice about poultry and egg preparation. Poultry should be thoroughly cooked to leave no red juices and eggs should be cooked until the white is hard. Anyone handling raw poultry should wash their hands thoroughly and clean all surfaces and utensils with soap and hot water, said the FSA. - telegraph.co.uk

again we see wild birds blamed for this

Britain Rolls Out Bird Flu Crisis Plan
By DAVID STRINGER Associated Press Writer LONDON (AP) Apr 7 2006 --
Wildlife officers were keeping watch on 3 million birds and a dozen dead swans were being tested for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus Friday, as the British government rolled out a crisis plan after the country's first confirmed case of the disease.
Around 250,000 free-range birds were being moved indoors and restrictions on bird movements were in place in heavily policed zones close to the Scottish harbor town where a swan infected with H5N1 was discovered last week, Scotland's government said.
Six poultry keepers in a 1.8 mile ring around the site were having their flocks sampled for signs of the virus.
Patrols of wardens and veterinarians were also touring a 6 mile surveillance zone established around Cellardyke, a town more than 450 miles north of London.
Farming unions urged the public not to overreact to the discovery of the diseased swan - confirmed Thursday as having HN51 - amid fears the effect could be devastating to Scotland's rural economy. The National Farmers' Union said Scotland's poultry industry is worth more than 115 million pounds (US$202 million; euro161 million) per year. "If people panic, they are putting livelihoods at risk," said James Withers, deputy chief executive officer of the National Farmers' Union Scotland.
A "wild bird risk area" covering about 1,000 sq. miles has been imposed in eastern Scotland, requiring poultry farmers to keep their flocks under cover or separated from wild birds. Around 3.1 million farmed birds populate the area and are under intensive surveillance for signs of disease, Withers said.
Scotland's rural affairs minister Ross Finnie said 14 other birds, including 12 swans, are currently being tested for signs of H5N1.
At least 109 people have died from bird flu since a wave of outbreaks of the H5N1 strain swept through Asian poultry populations in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Alex Thiermann, the Paris-based head of the avian influenza team at the OIE, said human infection was unlikely in Britain and the developed world, as people do not commonly live in close proximity to birds, or to bird droppings.
"The risk of a human in most of Europe being infected with H5N1 is almost totally negligible. The impact is likely to be economic," Thiermann said. He said poultry consumption had dropped 70 percent in Italy following confirmation of bird flu.
Thiermann also raised the prospect of the virus being carried across the Atlantic by migratory flocks interacting. "It could become a risk in the United States by next fall," he said. "There are a lot of variables, but there is that prospect." He said migratory birds from Europe could infect those from the Americas as they intersect in Siberia, Alaska or the Arctic Circle.
"It is unlikely avian flu could be brought into the U.S. through imported birds, because of the strict controls on imports," said Thiermann. "But we need to look at the potential mingling of migratory birds and whether that could lead to the spread of the virus."
He said studies will be carried out to examine birds in breeding grounds and water courses shared in the Arctic by migratory birds traveling on Eurasian flyways and on trans-Atlantic flyways - the routes followed by the birds.
In Washington, federal guidelines were rushed out Friday to help companies develop new tests capable of quickly singling out bird flu in infected humans, the Food and Drug Administration said. - assoc press

virus caught a month ago [from a French bird?] hmmm
an end to outdoor free range poultry farms?

Swan may have caught the virus a month ago
Timing of infection linked to arrival of H5N1 in France
Ian Sample and James Meikle Saturday April 8, 2006 The Guardian
The dead swan that signalled the arrival of highly pathogenic bird flu on British soil is believed to have contracted the disease up to a month ago, experts said yesterday. The carcass was so badly decomposed that it had probably been dead for three weeks when it tested positive for the H5N1 virus, having become infected several days earlier, they said.
Efforts to check whether the virus had spread to other birds were stepped up yesterday. Veterinarians were swabbing birds in poultry farms and officials were scouring for dead birds in the 3km protection zone around Cellardyke, where the swan was discovered.
Tests on 12 swans and two other wild birds found dead in Scotland revealed that nine had died of other causes. The results of the other tests were unknown last night. Scotland's chief veterinary officer, Charles Milne, said: "There is no indication that any of these results are positive. We will have to wait until the laboratory tests are completed."
Dead birds from other parts of Britain were also being tested by scientists at Defra's Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey, but were not being considered as high priority. Scottish farmers already hit by restrictions said yesterday they may press for changes in EU rules on free-range status.
The timing of the swan's infection coincides with the arrival of bird flu in France and Germany after unusually cold weather had forced many infected waterfowl to desert the Black Sea region in search of warmer conditions.
Andre Farrar, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, said: "The bird was heavily decomposed when it was found and swan corpses take some time to get that bad. It will have been three weeks to a month ago that it picked up the disease and that puts it in a timeframe consistent with the main crop of outbreaks in other parts of Europe."
The Guardian understands that the condition of the bird forced Defra officials to order genetic tests to confirm whether or not it was a mute swan, as suspected, or another species. In response to fears of the infection spreading, staff at the Royal Parks have drawn up plans to quarantine birds. Enclosed areas are being prepared at sites including a newly built section in St James's Park and a breeding house in Regent's Park, both in London.
A Royal Parks spokeswoman said: "We are receiving advice from Defra and if there is a threat of bird flu in the region, we do have quarantining areas for birds."
The Scottish executive said lab work was in progress to see if the 1 virus that killed the swan matched viruses isolated from other dead animals where the infection has taken hold in bird populations.
"By comparing the virus with others they might be able to work out where it came from," said Professor John Oxford, a leading virologist at Queen Mary, University of London.
A total of 45 organic and free-range poultry farms with 250,000 birds are among the 195 in Scotland already ordered to bring their 3.1m birds under cover. Free-range status is dependent on giving daily access to open runs and this requirement of EU rules can be suspended for as long as three months.
Sir David King, the government's chief scientist, told the BBC that farming practices might change if the virus spread among wild birds: "There would no longer be outdoor birds. That means free-range farming and organic farming would effectively come to an end."
Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, said Sir David appeared to have "an unreconstructed attitude against nature-friendly and health-promoting forms of livestock farming". "The big issue is what kind of attitude we have," he said. "Whether it is calm and sophisticated or hysterical, draconian and fear inducing."
The association had been assured by Defra officials in March that 10m doses of vaccine were being ordered as a contingency to protect some poultry. That was on top of 2m doses already on standby for zoo and exotic birds.
Organic growers have dispensation to use nets over runs rather than bringing birds indoors. "Obviously it is not quite as failsafe as shutting them in but we think it is enough," Mr Holden said. - guardian.co.uk

scaremongering anyone?

Bird flu 'could kill 100,000 children'
(Filed: 09/04/2006)
The Government's most senior medical adviser has warned that 100,000 schoolchildren could die if a bird flu pandemic strikes Britain. Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, said in a letter leaked to The Sunday Times that school closures could help keep the death toll down, but 50,000 children could still be expected to die.
In the letter to Jacqui Smith, the schools minister, he wrote: "Until the pandemic virus emerges we cannot know for certain which groups would be most vulnerable. "If all age groups were affected equally, and the virus was particularly severe (ie at the upper end of our assumptions) the excess deaths in school-age children could be as high as 100,000. "This would mean that potentially 50,000 deaths might be prevented by school closures."
He added: "Based on the indications from the modelling, a policy of school closures could reduce the number of deaths in children. "For this reason, I would recommend that schools should be planning on the basis that they may have to close for part or all of the pandemic."
There is no firm evidence that the H5N1 strain of bird flu can pass easily from person to person. But there are fears it could mutate or mix with human flu viruses to create a new virus.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said : "We do not comment on leaked documents. However, it is sensible and no secret that contingency plans are being drawn up across Government."
Despite thousands of calls from the public and the examination of hundreds of birds, a single dead swan found in Scotland remains the only confirmed case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the UK.
A total of 14 dead birds have so far tested negative for H5N1 in Scotland over the last few days. Further tests are being carried out on more birds picked up from 22 locations in the infection area near to where the swan was discovered in the coastal village of Cellardyke in Fife. And a further eight are being investigated. But out of nearly 2,500 calls in a single day from across the UK, no suspected bird flu cases had been identified, according to the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). - telegraph.co.uk

No new bird flu - this Aus report cites the Indo-Asian 'threat'

No new bird flu in Scotland
April 9th 2006 - Fourteen more birds found dead in Scotland did not die of bird flu, officials said on Saturday, two days after Britain confirmed the deadly H5N1 strain had reached its shores.
On Thursday, Scotland's chief veterinary officer Charles Milne said a Mute swan found in Cellardyke harbour in eastern Scotland had died from the virus.
Fourteen more birds, including 12 swans, were also found but officials said on Saturday they had all tested negative.
"We had nine results back on Friday and they were all negative and now we've been told the other five were clear too," a Scottish Executive spokeswoman said.
The Head of Veterinary Services for Scotland, Derick McIntosh, told reporters on Saturday that dead birds from 22 locations near the initial case had also been collected by officials for further testing.
Members of the public have been given a helpline to contact officials if they spot dead birds and McIntosh said he expected a large number of calls over the weekend.
"We believe we're ready for that," he said.
Some 70 extra members of staff have been brought in to cope with the extra work load, he added.
Officials have said the threat to humans is remote, despite the discovery of the deadly H5N1 strain in the carcass of the swan, found on March 29. The Scottish Executive and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said laboratories in Scotland and England would work through the weekend to test the birds. Scottish officials have announced measures to prevent the spread of the disease to domestic poultry farms as has happened in some European countries. Vets will test birds at all poultry farms within 3 km of the site where the swan was found. The authorities also set up a 2,500 sq km "wild bird risk area" in Scotland.
"Everybody's wish is that this disease never gets any further, and never gets into our domestic poultry flocks," National Farmers Union President John Kinnaird said.
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, although it has not done so yet. According to the World Health Organisation, the virus has killed 109 people out of at least 192 known human infections since 2003, almost all of them in Asia and involving people who had close contact with infected birds. The virus has infected farm birds in France, Germany and several other European Union countries in recent months, but there has been no reported case of human infection in the EU.
Meanwhile, a poultry farmer in India's bird-flu hit western region was hospitalised on Saturday with flu-like symptoms, the state's health minister said. "We have admitted him and all precautions have been taken," Ashok Bhatt told reporters. He did not describe symptoms the man was showing. The man was being tested at a government hospital in Ahmedabad, the state's main city. Bhatt said the 30-year-old man approached authorities and told them some 600 chicken on his farm had died last week.
More than 50,000 birds have been culled in two districts of south Gujarat, which borders Nawapur district in Maharashtra state from where India's first outbreak of avian influenza in poultry was reported in February. Maharashtra has struggled since then with a third outbreak hitting 14 new villages this week in the state's Jalgaon district, near the site of the two earlier outbreaks.
The virus has also struck a region close to Jalgaon in the central state of Madhya Pradesh. India has culled more than 500,000 birds and monitoredhundreds of people living in close proximity to poultry. The country has not reported the infection in humans. - theage.com

food shortages?

Revealed: the secret No 10 plan to tackle bird flu food shortages
By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor - (Filed: 09/04/2006) - telegraph.co.uk
Emergency plans to tackle widespread food shortages in the event of a bird flu pandemic are being drawn up by ministers, according to secret Cabinet documents.
Off-duty firemen and retired lorry drivers would be pressed into service to ensure that essential food and drink supplies were delivered. Laws that restrict the daily hours of drivers and other vital workers would be suspended.
The confidential papers - seen by the Sunday Telegraph - show that a serious lack of long-distance- HGV drivers willing to go to infected areas is seen in Whitehall as a potential "pinch point" if avian flu takes a grip. The papers reveal government concern over a lack of preparation for a pandemic among the biggest food firms.
They also show how, in the event of a serious outbreak overseas, the Government will give preventive medicine to embassy and consular staff - but not to British holidaymakers or UK nationals who live in an infected country.
The Government fears that any pandemic could last more than six months. The documents say that Whitehall should be on alert for a pandemic on an "extended time-scale - certainly for six months … and perhaps longer". They also suggest "more than one pandemic wave" of bird flu.
The documents were drawn up on March 22, a fortnight before a dead swan in a village in Fife was found to have the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease. The swan, which was washed ashore in the village of Cellardyke, had a strain similar to that contracted by 100 birds in Germany. Tests are continuing on hundreds of other dead birds, but none - apart from the swan - has tested positive for H5N1. Fourteen other birds that gave rise to concern tested negative.
The documents show a lack of preparedness in Whitehall that ministers and officials are working round the clock to combat. Their disclosure came as the Government was accused of "astonishing complacency" over planning, with farmers angry about confusing advice and the £1.2 billion poultry industry braced for a consumer backlash.
Industry leaders and poultry staff called for vaccinations to protect birds and farm workers, amid claims that the situation was becoming reminiscent of the foot and mouth crisis, which left thousands of animals on giant pyres.
The Government papers, which have been discussed by the "Cabinet Committee on Influenza Pandemic Planning", include a blueprint for "managing the response" to a pandemic. Whitehall would go into what officials call a full-scale "battle rhythm" with Tony Blair lined up to take personal charge at an as yet unspecified stage.
It is understood that two issues particularly concerning ministers are the difficulties of closing large numbers of schools and the provision of masks to large numbers of people, should the need arise.
A Government paper revealed last week suggested that families might have to wait up to four weeks to bury their dead. Ministers warned that up to 320,000 people could die in a pandemic.
The Cabinet documents reveal how the Environment Department fears that no large-scale plans to combat a pandemic have been lined up by big food companies apart from Marks & Spencer - suggesting a chronic lack of preparedness. They add: "HGV drivers had been identified as a potential pinch-point by some sectors. Various mitigation options were being discussed, including using retired drivers or off-duty fire service personnel, and lifting the requirements of the Working Time Directive."
An accompanying memo by Lord Triesman, the junior foreign office minister, puts forward an exhaustive plan for coping with a bird flu outbreak abroad. In the event of humans being infected, the document suggests, "we may come under pressure from the media and the British public at home to appear to be doing more for our nationals immediately affected by the virus. In particular we would hope to deal with the potential sensitivity of providing Tamilflu antiviral treatment for use by overseas mission staff and their dependents diagnosed with the flu virus under our duty of care obligations, but not to British nationals."
The document admits that France would supply preventive medicine to its overseas citizens while Britons will be told to fend for themselves.

native? as opposed to what - ?

Bird flu swan 'probably native'

AREA ON ALERT
Poultry owners within wild bird risk area must keep birds indoors or, if not possible, ensure they are kept away from wild birds
Bird transport within 6 mile (10km) surveillance zone will be curbed
Poultry within 1.8 mile (3km) protection zone must be kept indoors and will be tested

Monday, 10 April 2006 - A swan with the H5N1 bird flu strain probably came from the Bay of Montrose about 30 miles north of where it was found dead, scientists in Scotland say. Experts are still testing other birds found near Cellardyke harbour in Fife - but so far all have proved negative.
Meanwhile, a UK helpline has had at least 5,500 reports of dead birds. Government chief scientific adviser Sir David King has said there is a "very low" chance of the virus mutating to a form that spreads between humans.
Rural Affairs Minister Ross Finnie told BBC News the "preponderant" view of ornithologists was the swan was part of the native population found around the Bay of Montrose. "But they did enter one big caveat... that population is added to by somewhere between 10 and 20 birds each year from mainland Europe," he added. The swan's DNA was being tested to determine "whether it was absolutely part of the local population", Mr Finnie told BBC News. "Although it is proving very difficult because of the highly decomposed nature of the swan."
The H5N1 virus cannot pass easily from one person to another and therefore currently does not pose a large-scale threat to humans. Experts fear the virus could gain this ability if it mutates. They say it could trigger a flu pandemic in its new form, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.

But Sir David King told ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme suggestions of an inevitable global human pandemic were "totally misleading".
He added: "We have got a virus in the bird population that has gone on since 1996, and in Asia particularly there has been a lot of contact between human beings and the birds that have got that virus."
Despite that, a human virus had not developed, he said.
Sir David said bird flu was "absolutely not" present among poultry, and said he was "fairly optimistic" it was absent in wild birds.
He stressed that so far one dead bird had been washed ashore with H5N1, which may have come from a previously infected part of Europe.
"The one swan doesn't mean it has arrived here," he said.
The infected swan found in Fife had a "very similar" strain to one which infected more than 100 birds in Germany, tests showed. A six-mile (10km) surveillance zone and 1.8 mile (3km) protection zone in place around Cellardyke will remain for at least 30 days from the day the swan was found. A wild bird risk area of 965 square miles (2,500km) has also been established which includes 175 registered poultry premises, containing 3.1 million birds, 260,000 of which are free-range.
And Cobra, the government's crisis management committee is due to meet.

BIRD FLU FACTFILE
Bird flu viruses have 16 H subtypes and nine N subtypes.
Four types of the virus are known to infect humans - H5N1, H7N3, H7N7 and H9N2 Most lead to minor symptoms, apart from H5N1
H5N1 has caused more than 100 deaths in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam
MY NOTE: over a period of 3 years

The World Health Organisation says not all H5 or H7 strains are severe, but their ability to mutate means their presence is "always a cause for concern" A health spokesman said: "This is still a disease of birds, not humans."
These sentiments were echoed by John Oxford, a professor of virology at Queen Mary's School of Medicine, in London. He told BBC Radio Five Live: "We're not expecting a human case from this swan - nor are we really expecting human cases from chickens."
He said the focus of attention in future would be more likely to be southeast Asia, not Fife.
But shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the government's pandemic plans left questions unanswered, such as whether schools should be closed in the first wave of an outbreak and whether the public should be advised to avoid public transport. "The economic and human consequences of these decisions are immense," he said. He said there should be an open public debate the issues prior to the onset of any pandemic.
If you find a dead swan, goose or duck; or three or more dead wild or garden birds in the same place, you should call the Defra helpline on 08459 335577 .
BBC

BBC helpfully provide a hit list [for ignorant thugs presumably]

Bird flu experts' wildfowl watch
Over the past winter leading up to the first confirmed case of bird flu in the UK, 10 species of wildfowl have been monitored by experts as potential importers of the virus. They are listed below.
Some of the 10 species have populations resident in the UK all year round, but all have had significant numbers coming to the UK either as part of their annual long distance seasonal migration, or after being driven here by freezing weather in the east.
The seasonally migrating populations are now on the move again, heading north, to their Arctic breeding grounds.

BEWICK'S SWAN

Number in UK: 9,000 individuals in winter only (a third of the European population)
Breeds: Northern Eurasia and northern north America
Habitat: Lakes, ponds and rivers, plus estuaries when migrating
Diet: Plant material including tubers, shoots and leaves

MALLARD

Number in UK: 138,000 breeding pairs, plus 500,000 indivduals in winter
Breeds: Eurasia, north America
Habitat: Anywhere with water
Diet: Seeds, acorns and berries, plants, insects and shellfish

PINTAIL

Number in UK: Tiny numbers of breeding pairs, 28,000 individuals in winter
Breeds: North and central Europe, Asia, north America
Habitat: Lakes, rivers, marsh and tundra
Diet: Plants and small animals, feeds on mud bottom at depths of 10-30cm (four-12 inches)

POCHARD

Number in UK: 80,000 individuals in winter only
Breeds: Europe, north and central Asia
Habitat: Lakes, slow rivers and estuaries
Diet: Range of plants and small insects, also small animals

SHOVELER

Number in UK: 1,000-1,500 breeding pairs, plus 18,000 inidividuals in winter
Breeds: North and central Europe, Asia, north America
Habitat: Shallow lakes, marshes, reed beds and wet meadows
Diet: Small insects, crustaceans, molluscs, seeds

TEAL

Number in UK: 2,600 breeding pairs, plus 197,000 individuals in winter
Breeds: North and central Eurasia
Habitat: Lakes, marshes, ponds and shallow streams
Diet: Range of plants and small insects, mostly seeds in winter

TUFTED DUCK

Number in UK: 7,000-8,000 breeding pairs, plus 60,000 individuals in winter
Breeds: North and central Europe, Asia, north America
Habitat: Shallow lakes, marshes, reed beds and wet meadows
Diet: Small insects, crustaceans, molluscs, seeds

WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE

Number in UK: 36,000 individuals in winter only
Breeds: Northern Russia, north America and western Greenland
Habitat: Tundra lakes, wet meadows and flooded fields and estuaries when migrating
Diet: Plant material including roots, tubers, shoots and leaves

WHOOPER SWAN

Number in UK: Over 10,000 inidividuals in winter only
Breeds: Northern Russia, northern north America and western Greenland
Habitat: Tundra lakes and wet meadows, plus flooded fields and estuaries when migrating
Diet: Plant material including roots, tubers, shoots and leaves

WIGEON

Number in UK: Tiny numbers of breeding pairs, over 500,000 inidividuals in winter
Breeds: North and central Europe, Asia
Habitat: Marsh, lakes, open moor, and estuaries when migrating
Diet: Mostly leaves, shoots, rootstock, also some seeds
Sources: British Trust for Ornithology; RSPB; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Bird flu swan was from outside UK
Tuesday, 11 April 2006, - A dead swan found in Fife which tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was a whooper swan, DNA tests by government scientists have found. The breed originates from outside the UK but it was unclear whether the dead bird picked up the disease abroad. A number of migratory whooper swans have recently been checked in the UK and all results have been negative. Some experts have suggested the swan could have died in another country and been washed up on the coast. No other birds have tested positive for H5N1 since the discovery in Cellardyke on 29 March.
'One-off'
Whitehall sources told the BBC a "working hypothesis" is the bird could have died in another country and been washed up on the Scottish coast.
Early test results suggested the swan found in Scotland had an almost identical virus to birds found in Germany, which saw an outbreak of H5N1 in Ruegen last month. The RSPB is hopeful that this, combined with the lack of any further cases, means the Cellardyke swan could be a "one-off".
The society's spokesman Andre Farrar said: "The likeliest scenario - and this has to be in the realms of speculation - is that this bird may have set off on its journey northwards, got part of the way across the North Sea, felt grotty, and landed on or fell into the sea, died and was washed into Cellardyke."
The whooper swan is known to migrate from Iceland, Scandinavia and northern Russia to spend winters in the UK, the Low countries and the south Baltic Sea.
Dr Martin Fowlie from the British Trust for Ornithology backed the theory but said another possibility was that the swan contracted the virus from another bird in the UK before it intended to move north.
Microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington said confirmation of the swan's identity made it more likely that the case was an isolated one. "This raises the likelihood that it had no contact with any native birds and that this case of H5N1 on our shores was a one-off," he added.
Earlier, professor Pennington told Radio 4's Today programme that if the swan caught the virus locally, birds would still have the disease but not been detected. But he said bird flu would not be "a foot-and-mouth situation - the virus is not going to go on the rampage".
8,000 calls
The H5N1 virus cannot pass easily from one person to another and therefore currently does not pose a large-scale threat to humans.
Experts, however, fear the virus could gain this ability if it mutates. They say it could trigger a flu pandemic in its new form, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.
Tests on birds found near Cellardyke are still being carried out, and a UK helpline has received 8,000 reports of dead birds. A six-mile (10km) surveillance zone and 1.8 mile (3km) protection zone in place around Cellardyke will remain for at least 30 days from the day the swan was found. A wild bird risk area has also been established which includes 175 registered poultry premises, containing 3.1 million birds, 260,000 of which are free-range.
Ministers, meanwhile, are considering bringing in targets to regulate the time between reporting a dead bird and tests being completed, according to the sources.
BBC News

Russias Avian flu is in the south....
the largest number are located in South Russias Krasnodar Stavropol, Dagestan...Volgograd Region.

Russia manages to contain avian flu in four regions
MOSCOW, Apr 4 (Prime-Tass) -- Russian veterinarians have managed to eradicate the highly pathogenic avian flu in six Russian regions and the infection remains registered in four other regions, Russia's Federal Service for Veterinarian and Phytosanitarian control said Tuesday.
There are 15 villages and towns still affected by the disease, while the situation has been normalized in 52 villages and towns during the past three months, the service said. Of the areas where the disease still needs to be dealt with, the largest number are located in South Russia's Krasnodar Region.
Other affected areas are situated in neighboring Stavropol Region, as well as in the constituent republic of Dagestan in North Caucasus and the Volgograd Region, which is located in the Volga River area.
Around 1.35 million domestic birds died or were culled in January-March in Russia, while more than 12.1 million birds were vaccinated.
The supply of vaccines amounted to 22.19 million doses during the period. Russia's Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev earlier said that Russia was fully prepared to prevent massive outbreaks of avian flu. - prime-tass.com

The Krasnodar region is located approximately 1,000 miles south of Moscow and is bisected by the Kuban river. The neighboring regions are Rostov Oblast in the north, Stavropol Krai to the east, Georgia to the southeast, Turkey (across the Black Sea) to the south and the Ukraine (across the Azov Sea) to the east. In addition to the capital Krasnodar, other well-known cities are Sochi and Novorossiysk. - russian american chamber.org

Migrating Whooper Swans can travel at speeds in excess of 90 km per hour and can reach Scotland from Iceland in just 12.7 hours in good weather conditions.
About 7 000 Whooper Swans migrate to Britain from their breeding grounds in Iceland every winter, with a further 13 000 migrating to Ireland. One satellite tracked Whooper Swan was blown off course by strong winds and took 42.4 hours to fly from Scotland to Iceland.
Although there was an early report of Whooper Swans flying at heights of 8200m, satellite-tracking studies have found that they generally fly at levels needed for ground clearance, ranging from 100m over the sea to 13 00m over Icelandic glaciers.
[ - adapted from wwt.org.uk/]

Our primary aim is to confirm the migration route and to identify unknown stop off sites used by swans on their migration so they can be protected and conserved. Virtually nothing is known of the migration routes of Whooper Swans in Russia, no one knows exactly where they winter and this study gives us the opportunity to find out.
Whooper Swans nest in a broad band of sub-arctic and taiga habitats to the south of the Bewick's Swans' breeding range, extending from Iceland and northern Scandinavia in the west to Mongolia, northern China and Kamchatka in the Far East. Very little is known of the migration of Whooper Swans nesting in the Russian sub-artic and boreal zones.
Autumn migration begins in late September or October and the 800km crossing from Iceland to Britain is probably the longest sea crossing undertaken by any swan species.
Whooper Swans (Cygnus cygnus) are amongst the heaviest of all migratory birds. The heaviest recorded individual found in Britain weighed 13.5kg and one bird, caught in Denmark, weighed a massive 15.5kg.
They breed in subarctic and taiga habitats in Eurasia from Iceland and northern Scandinavia in the west to Mongolia, northern China and Kamchatka in the far east. Birds from the Fennoscandian and northwest Russian breeding population winter in northern Europe. The majority of Whooper Swans that winter in Britain and Ireland are from the Icelandic breeding population and can be found mainly in Scotland.

back to those drug trials

CROPS IN SECRET LOCATIONS USE GM DRUG THAT LEFT SIX CRITICALLY ILL
notopharmaceuticalexperiments on IndyMediaUk
original source
Independent scientists have raised the alarm after media reports ommitted to mention that drugs, which left six people critically ill after a trial, are genetically modified and are being used in crops planted in secret locations across the UK.
Drug Trial Catastrophe & Safety of Secretly Tested Pharm Crops
A monoclonal antibody drug tested in a clinical trial made all six healthy volunteers violently ill, yet transgenic crop plants with similar drugs are being tested in secret locations and the unsuspecting public are being exposed without their knowledge or consent. Prof. Joe Cummins and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS members' website. Details here
Drug trial reactions attest to the deadly nature of MAB drugs
The London drug trial that left six healthy volunteers dangerously ill has raised awkward questions on the science and ethics involved in all stages of drug research and development ("Drug trial catastrophe - collapse of science and ethics", this series). The drug, code named TGN1412, is a genetically engineered humanized monoclonal antibody (MAB) aimed at treating leukaemia and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Hundreds of MAB drugs are under development, 18 of which have already been approved by the US FDA, with warnings posted on each and every one of them ("Warnings over FDA approved monoclonal antibody drugs", this series).
The violent reactions of all six human volunteers injected with TGN1412 serves as a graphic demonstration on how deadly such drugs can be.
In the aftershock of the episode, bioethicists and others have called for tighter regulation of human drug trials and a more cautious protocol. However, no one has raised the alarm over the distinct possibility that the general public might be exposed without informed consent to transgenic crops producing such drugs.
Secret pharm crops with MABs
Currently, the MAB drugs approved have mainly been prepared from cell cultures. The cost to the patients would be at least $20 000 to $50 000 per year; the colon cancer drug Erbitux costs $17 000 per month [1]. So, only the wealthy could benefit from such drugs, if at all. Producing the drugs in transgenic farm animals or in crop plants, therefore, promises to greatly reduce the cost of MAB drugs. And plans are afoot to do just that, with reckless disregard for the safety of the general public.
Laboratory mice have already been modified to produce human antibodies and there are efforts to create farm animals producing human antibodies [2]. Human monoclonal antibodies have been produced at relatively high levels in chicken eggs [3]. And humanized MABs have been produced using the yeast Pichia pastoris, ‘glycoengineered' to express human patterns of glycosylation (carbohydrate chains on proteins) to avoid immunological problems arising from non-human glycosylation [4].
Plant-based production of recombinant antibodies has been discussed extensively. A review published in 2003 [5] reported that six plant-derived antibodies have been developed as human therapeutics. The drug, Avicidin, developed by NeoRx and Monsanto, had some anticancer effect on colon cancer; but it caused severe diarrhoea and was withdrawn. A plant-derived antibody CaroRx produced in tobacco claims to reduce tooth decay by preventing adhesion of the bacterium Streptococcus mutans. A MAB targeting the cancer-antigen CEA was produced in tobacco, pea, rice and wheat. A humanized MAB recognizing herpes simples virus 2 was produced in soybean. Tobacco plants were transformed with a viral vector to produce antibodies targeting non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Finally, a MAB produced in tobacco targeted human chorionic gonadotropin, and was intended for use in contraception, pregnancy detection and therapy of tumours [6]. Plants have been transformed to produce prophylactic antibodies against rabies and other disease conditions [7].
We have drawn attention to the hazards of producing genetically modified vaccines and therapeutic antibodies. The main threat is the genetic pollution of major food crops resulting in food that is toxic [8]. Humanized MABs structured to attack herpes virus or regulate the human immune system were to be produced by transgenic strains of the green alga Chlamydomonas in large plastic tubes near a beach in Hawaii Chlamydomonas is a common soil microbe so the nature and location of the production facility would risk spreading the transgenic strains and the human genes also to soil microbes [9].
Molecular pharming (producing pharmaceuticals in transgenic crops) is turning into a new battlefront in the struggle of the global civil society against transgenic crops. Too many governments of industrialised countries appear to be prepared to allow biotech corporations to contaminate our food supply with un- prescribed and dangerous drugs [10].
The precise MABs in pharm crops deemed confidential business information
There have been at least 29 field tests of transgenic crops known to be producing antibodies, but the actual genes have been deemed confidential business information (CBI). The crops modified include maize and soybean; and the companies testing the transgenic crops are Prodigene, Monsanto and Agracetus, among others. The field releases were in Hawaii, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Texas and other states [1]. Other crops and MABs may have been tested, but designated CBI, as are the actual locations of such tests, and no effort has been made to notify bystanders and neighbours that are likely to be directly exposed to the drugs. People may be exposed to MABs from transgenic crops by pollen, dust debris from leaves, stems and flowers, and from polluted surface and groundwater. Once the MAB genes escape to fertilize neighbouring crops, they will persist within the contaminated crops, by virtue of simple Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium in elementary population genetics!
There is no case for using crop plants in the open field to produce these drugs, as they could easily be produced in plant cell culture under fully contained conditions.
The secretive field trials should never have been allowed, as they are exposing people, without their knowledge or consent, to drugs that could become life- threatening, as the London drug trial so vividly demonstrated.
The location and nature of current and previous field trials should be made public now before any more damage is done, and all further field trials should be banned.

Swan Virus tests

Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Swan DNA Result Confirms Migratory Whooper Breed

UK - The bird in which H5N1 avian influenza was confirmed on 6 April in Scotland has been identified as a Whooper swan by DNA 'fingerprinting' at the Central Science Laboratory.
<B><FONT style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" FONT face=Arial size=3><font color="#000000">Swan DNA Result Confirms Whooper Breed - UK - The bird in which H5N1 avian influenza was confirmed on 6 April in Scotland has been identified as a Whooper swan by DNA 'fingerprinting' at the Central Science Laboratory.
The UK's Chief Veterinary Officers (CVOs) have made a joint statement about the DNA results. In a separate development, Defra's Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds has written an open letter in response to concerns about the way birds would be killed to help control avian influenza.

In the letter, she stresses that all killing of birds for disease control purposes would be done by competent, trained operators working to standard operating procedures and acting under veterinary supervision. The Cellardyke swan is the first highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza case detected in a wild bird in the British Isles.

The Scottish Executive have established a 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone. A wider Wild Bird Risk Area has been defined to include significant populations of wild birds in the immediate area and to give clear boundaries. It is a requirement that poultry in this area be housed.

We continue to urge members of the public to report findings of dead birds to the Defra Helpline. Defra's wild bird surveillance programme will continue in the Wild Bird Risk Area and across GB. There will be no immediate change to the measures we have put in place.

The Cellardyke swan is the first highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza case detected in a wild bird in the British Isles and our current hypothesis [1] is that the swan originated outside Great Britain. We know already that movement of swans associated with cold weather and on migration has been a feature of recent developments in Europe .

There are Whooper swan populations which winter across GB. A number of these have been tested over the past few months, all results so far have been negative. At this time of year we would expect Whooper swans to be leaving GB for their summer breeding grounds.

More information will become available in the future from the current incident and studies on epidemiological, surveillance and laboratory tests that are now in progress worldwide.

We continue to urge members of the public to report findings of dead birds to the Defra Helpline. Our extensive wild bird surveillance programme will continue in the Wild Bird Risk Area and across GB. There will be no immediate change to the measures we have put in place.

This is the scientific approach of setting out the scientific view of the proponent, but recognizing the uncertainty and what needs to be done to reduce it.
Additional Information

Whoopers are migratory swans there are two main breeding populations - those from Iceland and those from Scandinavia and northern Russia. They winter in the UK and parts of continental Europe.

Analysis of the DNA from the dead swan from Cellardyke, Fife, shows a near perfect match (1 base different out of 358) with DNA sequence obtained from 2 whooper swans.
Guidance on handling and disposing of dead garden and wild birds

The advice given here applies in all circumstances where members of the public may come across a dead bird. If you find a dead swan, goose or duck or three or more dead wild, or garden birds together in the same place, please report this to Defra, via the Defra Helpline on 08459 33 55 77.

The current Defra helpline opening hours are Monday to Friday 6.00am to 10.00pm and Saturday and Sunday 6.00am to 10.00pm. They may wish to have the birds examined for signs of specific diseases. They will advise you on what action you should take. If the dead bird is a single, small garden, or wild bird then you do not need to call Defra.

You should:

leave it alone, or
follow the guidelines below for disposal
People should follow some simple hygiene precautions should minimise the risk of infection. It is hard for people to catch avian influenza from birds and the following simple steps are also effective against avian influenza.
If you have to move a dead bird

Avoid touching the bird with your bare hands
If possible, wear disposable protective gloves when picking up and handling (if disposable gloves are not available
Place the dead bird in a suitable plastic bag, preferably leak proof. Care should be taken not to contaminate the outside of the bag
Tie the bag and place it in a second plastic bag
Remove gloves by turning them inside out and then place them in the second plastic bag. Tie the bag and dispose of in the normal household refuse bin.
Hands should then be washed thoroughly with soap and water
If disposable gloves are not available, a plastic bag can be used as a make-shift glove. When the dead bird has been picked up, the bag can be turned back on itself and tied. It should then be placed in a second plastic bag, tied and disposed of in the normal household waste
Alternatively, the dead bird can be buried, but not in a plastic bag
Any clothing that has been in contact with the dead bird should be washed using ordinary washing detergent at the temperature normally used for washing the clothing.
Any contaminated indoor surfaces should be thoroughly cleaned with normal household cleaner.

DEFRA via POULTRY news

Swan Virus tests

UK's bird tests may be missing flu virus
12 April 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition - Debora MacKenzie
WHEN France reported its first case of H5N1 bird flu in February, the UK's response was adamant: samples had been taken from more than 3500 wild birds, and those tested so far showed the disease was not yet in the UK. Additional precautions, such as moving poultry indoors, were unnecessary, said the authorities.
Last week, scientists found H5N1 bird flu for the first time in the UK, in a dead swan in Fife, Scotland. The UK's environment ministry DEFRA again stated that all wild birds tested so far were negative for flu, so it was unlikely to be widespread. Now an investigation by New Scientist suggests that all those tests were flawed, meaning no one really knows just how widespread infection among British wild birds might be.
Suspicions have been raised because DEFRA's tests revealed none of the ordinary flu that ducks and geese normally carry. Of the 3343 faecal samples from wild birds taken for DEFRA by the conservation group the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in December, only two were shown to contain low-pathogenicity bird flu - 0.06 per cent. In a parallel study for DEFRA conducted by hunters, bird flu was found in only three of 423 freshly shot ducks, or 0.7 per cent. "We thought there was an unusually low level," says Ruth Crommie of the WWT, "but perhaps that happens in some bird populations."
Flu experts contacted by New Scientist disagree. "There's something wrong with those numbers," says Björn Olsen of the University of Kalmar in Sweden, who tests up to 10,000 wild birds per year in Europe's biggest monitoring programme for avian flu. Normally, he says, around 10 per cent of dabbling ducks and 1 per cent of geese should be carrying low-pathogenicity bird flu in Europe in December.
Richard Slemmons of Ohio State University in Columbus has tested 2000 to 3000 water birds per year for 20 years. His chief technician, Jacqueline Nolting, told New Scientist that "at least 6 or 7 per cent should be positive" at any time.
The problem may have been DEFRA's method of collecting samples. Crommie says DEFRA told WWT samplers to moisten a sterile swab on a stick with saline, take a faecal sample from the bird, then put the swab back in its dry plastic tube. The tubes were then kept at refrigerator temperature and taken to the testing laboratories the next day.
Both Nolting and Olsen are adamant that swabs must be immediately immersed in a saline or preservative solution, and also frozen quickly. "If you left a swab in the refrigerator in its sheath like that, it would dry out and you'd lose all your virus," says Olsen. He says whoever planned the tests "should have talked to us". DEFRA has not done large-scale flu surveys before.
"If you left a swab in the refrigerator in its sheath like that, it would dry out and you'd lose all your virus" "If you just want to identify the viruses present you could put it in a nutrient solution or in ethanol, but you need a transport medium," says Nolting. "We never take dry swabs." Both groups also quickly freeze samples.
DEFRA declined to comment on whether its sampling method would deliver intact virus to the testing labs. It says different results in previous surveys "did not invalidate the present survey".
Meanwhile, Olsen says H5N1 was most likely carried to the UK by migratory ducks, which could have spread the virus to wintering grounds all over the country. DEFRA's tests would probably not have picked it up.
Free-range poultry have been brought indoors in the region where the Scottish swan was found, but as New Scientist went to press poultry elsewhere were still outside - where, as far as anyone knows, they may remain at risk. - newscientist.com

low level psyops?

Flesh-eating bug sparks national alert
By Emma Mayoh
A flesh-eating bug in a batch of heroin has sparked a national alert as a woman fights for her life in hospital. Health chiefs in Lancashire are contacting A&E departments across the country warning staff to look out for symptoms of the bug which has already killed two men in Preston.
Addict Gary Preston, 35, died in the Royal Preston Hospital on Sunday after injecting heroin. Tests revealed he had contracted the deadly microbe, streptococcus, a bacteria that eats away at the sufferer from the inside, attacking the vital organs. His housemate, Raymond Day, 35, also a drug user, was found dead on the kitchen floor of their flat in Carr Street, Avenham, on Sunday. They had suffered similar symptoms, a severe rash, jaundice and were disorientated prior to death.
A mother-of-two, also from Avenham, who had been with Mr Preston on Saturday night, is in a critical condition at the Royal Preston Hospital. Doctors are testing her for the killer bug.
Detective Sergeant John Crichton, of Preston CID, said: "The two men died almost straight away but the woman had been ill for a few days before she was taken to hospital. "We would dearly like her to pull through but microbiologists have told me that the bacteria attached to the virus eats away at the flesh and no amount of drugs can help unless it is caught with a lot of antibiotics at an early stage." He urged the dealer who supplied the heroin, thought to be from Liverpool, to come forward.
Det Sgt John Crichton said: "We do not know how many could be affected until we know where the drugs have come from. "It could be isolated but could also affect a lot of people and we're concerned the drugs could be being circulated in the area. We would ask anyone who knows anything to come forward."
Any drug users with symptoms, including rashes or jaundice, should contact their GPs or attend hospital.
Staff at Lancashire Drug Action Team, a multi-agency group to help combat drug mis-use, have pledged to lay on extra supplies of the heroin substitute, methadone, for drug users.
Addicts still using the class A drug are advised to smoke rather than inject it.
Steve Gee, consultant in communicable disease control for the HPA, said: "As far as we are aware at the moment there are no other cases in the North West and we will be contacting all accident and emergency departments that cover the UK."
An investigation has been launched by the Health Protection Agency to see if there are any links between the two deaths and the woman. - Preston citizen.co.uk/

Pigs...birds...money

EU disease fears expected to boost pig prices
18/04/2006 Farmers Weekly
The UK pigmeat market may soon feel the effects of the Scotland's recently confirmed case of H5N1 Avian Flu and further Swine Fever outbreaks in Germany.
If Avian Flu spreads further in the UK consumers could start switching from poultry meat to pork, which is selling at barely breakeven levels and 5% lower than a year ago. Evidence of the wider spread of Swine Fever in Germany was confirmed by new outbreaks in the North Rhine region, one of which occurred outside the existing surveillance zone.
All pigs on the affected farm have been destroyed and live pig movement restrictions have been imposed on holdings in North-Rhine Westphalia Live pig exports from any part of Germany have also been banned and other EU member states may not send pigs to slaughter houses within the affected region. These restrictions will remain in place until 15 May, disrupting cull sow and heavy pig slaughtering.
The last major CSF outbreak in the EU occurred in Holland in 1997 and led to soaring pig prices benefiting UK producers. The latest German CSF outbreak is leading to wide fluctions within Europe.
French prices have dropped back by almost 7p/kg, Danish quotes are holding at similar levels, but the German market has risen by 3p/kg indicating a tightening of live pig supplies. But the whole EU market could be hit if movement restrictions are lifted after 15 May, releasing a large number of overweight pigs onto the early summer market.

Eh? er...you mean it really is chicken in those buns?

McDonald's isolates chickens to fight bird flu
By Brad Dorfman OAK BROOK, Illinois (Reuters) -
McDonald's Corp. is having its suppliers in Europe bring normally free-range chickens indoors to try to contain the spread of bird flu and to make sure the food it serves is not tainted with the disease, the company said on Monday.
"We are now imposing standards which require that those free range chickens that are producing free-range eggs be brought into houses because of the threat of the spread of avian influenza," said Catherine Adams, vice president worldwide quality at McDonald's.
The standard, in place for six to eight months, is not just for birds producing eggs McDonald's uses, but for the poultry it serves to customers, too, company officials said in presentations to reporters on Monday.
The move, which Adams said was somewhat controversial in parts of Europe because of the culture of raising free-range birds, is one of several steps the world's largest restaurant company is taking to make sure customers will still buy poultry in its restaurants even if there is an outbreak of bird flu in the region.
While McDonald's is best known for its hamburgers, chicken has become big business for the company.
In the United States, for example, the company reached the point during 2005 where it sold more chicken on a dollar basis than it sold beef, said Mike Roberts, president and chief operating officer. In the United States, the company has had its suppliers test flocks for bird flu for the past six months, said Frank Muschetto, senior vice president and chief purchasing officer.
"In the U.S. we have vertical integration, the flocks are raised just for McDonald's, so we have total control over it," he said...In other countries, that is not the case. For example, in parts of Europe, testing is controlled by the government and only occurs then the government allows, he said. "Every place where we are able to test, we test the flocks," Muschetto said.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed 109 people in nine countries -- Turkey, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Iraq, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Cambodia. It has infected 194 people. The virus has spread across Asia and into parts of the Middle East, Africa and Europe since 2003, but has yet to be found in North or South America.
McDonald's has benefited from a reputation for food safety, Roberts said, noting the company did not see a decline in chicken sales in China when bird flu hit that country.
"We're selling more chicken now than before (the outbreak)," Roberts said.
There was a decline in chicken sales at McDonald's parts of Europe when the disease hit, but that business has recovered, he added.
McDonald's shares closed down 53 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $34.32 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. - reuters

no compensation for infected bird deaths

Compensation will be there if virus spreads
19/04/2006 - Philip Clarke - Farmers Weekly
As the UK is added to the list of EU countries that have had a case of avian flu, many poultry farmers are asking what compensation would be available should the disease strike commercial flocks.
According to ADAS poultry team leader Stephen Edge, compensation is only payable for healthy birds, slaughtered by DEFRA as part of a disease control programme.
This would be the case whether they were on an infected premises or one that was deemed to be a "dangerous contact". The decision to cull adjacent farms would be made on a case-by-case basis - there are no plans to undertake a blanket contiguous cull around an infected unit.
"Compensation is only paid in respect of healthy birds at the time of the cull, based on market values," says Mr Edge.
There would be no compensation for birds that died of the disease.
With regard to clean-up costs, DEFRA only pays for the primary clean-up, disinfection of the litter and all surfaces within the house. It also organises and pays for the removal of dead birds.
But, while DEFRA supervises the secondary clean-up (litter removal, wash down etc), the producer meets the cost. But further aid could be on the horizon, as the EU Commission is poised to sanction compensation for income losses associated with the fall in demand for poultry. This is in response to an initial 70% drop in consumption in Italy and 30% fall in France.
EU agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel intends to introduce such a scheme in early May, after approval by the European parliament and EU farm ministers.
"In my view, the most sensible approach would be to compensate farmers for measures which temporarily reduce production," she said, hinting at the destruction of hatching eggs and young chicks.
This aid would be co-financed by Brussels and national governments, though it would be up to member states to make a case. So far the UK poultry market has been more resilient, so it seems unlikely that DEFRA would be looking to use such a scheme, especially given that it has to be co-funded.

compensation for keeping stum

Drug trial victims offered £5k compensation
Wednesday, 19th April 2006, LIFE STYLE EXTRA (UK) -
The volunteers in the disastrous "Elephant man" drugs trial have been offered £5,000 if they agree not to sue the drugs company for compensation.
Lawyers for four of the six men affected said TeGenero, the German manufacturer of the experimental drug, has offered them £5,000 each as an "interim payment" with a fuller settlement later. But they will only get the money if they sign away their right to take the company to court for what they think they are entitled to.
The men refused the offer.
Martyn Day, who represents the four, blasted TeGenero for trying to force them into a binding decision so soon after the trial left them fighting for life. He said today (WED): "It's totally inappropriate they should be trying to force us into deciding on the legal route to take at such an early stage. After all, it's only five weeks since it happened."
Six of the eight volunteers suffered violent reactions including multiple organ failure after being given TGN1412, designed to treat conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and leukaemia, in the trial run by Paraxel at the Northwick Park hospital in north west London. The other two received harmless placebos.
The worst affected, Ryan Wilson, is still in hospital after being in a coma for two weeks and faces losing several fingers and toes, it emerged this week.
Mr Day said he had asked TeGenero, which has accepted it must pay compensation, for interim payments of £10,000 to pay for living costs for his clients, who are still very ill and cannot work. TeGenero's insurers made the reduced offer and tried to force them into the "no faults" procedure, in which the final settlement is decided by arbitration.
It would avoid expensive legal proceedings but would mean they would get just a one-off lump sum, rather than a provisional damages with later payments if necessary.
Mr Day said: "TeGenero took out an insurance policy for £2 million. The complexity of the policy is that it only applies if the clients choose the route of not going through the courts. "The insurance company was offering £5,000 if the clients agreed not to down that route. "We had asked for £10,000 to tide them over as an interim payment while we tried to resolve the case.
"First they have only halved that figure and second they have tried to tie them into going down this route. "We think it's totally inappropriate, it's totally wrong. They should be paying out as a matter of right. They're the ones that have put our clients in this position.
"What we're saying is that it's far too early for them to make this kind of decision. Until we're clear about the clouds hanging over their heads it's too early to say. These guys have suffered a lot. They haven't been able to work, they haven't been able to go out. They have suffered a lot of expense.
"It seems entirely appropriate that the drug company should pay. "The crucial thing is the clients should be given the proper opportunity to firstly have the money to be able to live a reasonable life while the case is being resolved, and secondly to work out what the case involves and what they will need in the long term. "We are strongly urging the drug company to reconsider their position."

is it over? is the madness finally over?

Bird flu restrictions to be ended
20th April 2006 - BBC
The bird flu restrictions put in place after the discovery of a dead swan at Cellardyke in Fife are to be lifted. First Minister Jack McConnell told the Scottish Parliament that the immediate 3km (1.9 miles) protection zone would be removed on Saturday. This will apply to the movement of poultry products in the area, while restrictions on live poultry and other captive birds will remain until May. The wider 10km (6.2 miles) surveillance zone is also set to be lifted on 1 May. This move is conditional on the completion of a programme of veterinary inspections, with negative results, of all premises with poultry in the Wild Bird Surveillance Zone.
Calm reaction
The Scottish Executive also intends that the Wild Bird Risk Area - east of the M90/A90 stretching from the Forth Bridge to Stonehaven - will lapse on 1 May, subject to a veterinary risk assessment.
The restrictions on the movement of birds will also end on this date.
Mr McConnell praised the work of vets and other officials who, he said, reacted quickly and effectively to what could have been a serious outbreak. He said people had responded "calmly and reasonably". "I think we all know the damage that can be done when people panic," said Mr McConnell.
'Strong signal'
The first minister said the Scottish ministerial group on civil contingencies would meet soon in a bid to learn lessons from the incident in Fife. He also stressed that it was necessary to "send out a very strong signal that people should still come to Scotland" because "bird flu is not a human disease".
Meanwhile, Professor Hugh Pennington - one of the country's leading microbiologists - has criticised the time it took to realise that bird flu had reached Britain for the first time. He told BBC News the time taken to confirm that the swan found in Fife last month had the H5N1 strain was "longer than it needed to be".
It took eight days - after the bird was first reported on a beach at Cellardyke on 29 March - before tests confirmed that the animal had the disease.
But Prof Pennington, who is president of the Society for General Microbiology, said three days would have been "more acceptable". He also pointed out that a day passed after the dead swan was reported before experts tested the bird, although Prof Pennington said any future response would probably be quicker.
The H5N1 virus, which causes bird flu, does not pose a large-scale threat to humans, as it cannot pass easily from one person to another.
Experts, however, fear the virus could mutate at some point in the future, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.

just a coincidence [go to top of this page to see relevance]

UK patients 'buy transplants of dead Chinese'
JANE KIRBY - 20th April 2006
BRITISH transplant surgeons have accused China of harvesting for sale the organs of thousands of executed prisoners every year, attracting patients from the UK who cannot find a donor.
The British Transplantation Society (BTS) condemned the practice - which China denies - as "unethical" and "unacceptable", saying it breached the human rights of prisoners.
Professor Stephen Wigmore, chairman of the BTS ethics committee, said he and his colleagues all knew of patients who had researched the possibility of going to China for transplants.
The BTS said it had evidence that: "suggests that the organs of executed prisoners are being removed for transplantation without the prior consent of either the prisoner or their family". "The process is known to involve payment of money and may implicate transplant centres, patients, and the authorities and judiciary responsible for the prisoners." - scotsman

new bird found in Manchester?

Dead swan tested for bird flu
By [an un-named] Bolton Evening News Reporter - 25th April 2006
THE body of a swan found dead in a Bolton canal is to be tested for bird flu. The bird was seen in reed beds on a disused stretch of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal by a walker yesterday and reported to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
A team from Defra was due to remove the body today and send it for testing at the EU's bird flu laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey. A spokesman for Defra said there was no cause for panic.
"Birds can die for a huge number of reasons," he said. "Our programme for bird surveillance has been going on for three months, and in that time 3,000 birds have been tested. Only one case of the H5N1 virus has been discovered. "Our advice to the public is that they should report bird fatalities to us."
He said the bird would be tested for avian flu and other diseases.
The swan was spotted by 66-year-old Alan O'Brien as he was walking along the towpath from Radcliffe to his home in Manor Avenue, Little Lever, at lunchtime yesterday. He said: "I just spotted it in the water and it seemed to be in a very odd position, lying on its front with its wings spread out and its head tucked under its body. "With the recent reports of bird flu, I thought it was something I should report. There's a lot of geese and swans which seem to be nesting on the canal at this time of year."
Anyone who finds a dead bird can report it to Defra on 08459 33 55 77.

now it gets strange

Bird flu found on East Anglian farm
26 April 2006 | 23:42 BRAD JONES - eadt.co.uk
CHICKENS found dead on an East Anglian poultry farm have tested positive for bird flu, it emerged tonight. The virus has been found in samples taken from chickens found dead on a poultry near Dereham, Norfolk, Defra officials said.
However, preliminary test results showed that the virus was likely to be the H7 strain not H5N1.
Birds on the premises are being slaughtered as a precautionary measure.
DEFRA investigates strain of avian flu in Norfolk
27/04/2006 10:11:00 Farmers Weekly
Preliminary tests suggest that the H7 strain of the avian influenza virus has been found on a poultry farm near Dereham in Norfolk.
Further tests will be carried out on Thursday (26 April), to confirm the strain of the virus.
DEFRA has announced that as a precautionary measure birds on the premises will be slaughtered on suspicion of an avian notifiable disease.
Restrictions have been placed on the farm. When the additional laboratory results are known further action may be taken.

Bird flu found - not present - H7 variant found - slaughter anyway!

Bird flu found in Norfolk
IAN CLARKE, MICHAEL POLLITT, RURAL AFFAIRS EDITOR - new.edp24.co.uk/ - 27 April 2006 08:16
Bird flu has been found in a large flock of chickens in the heart of Norfolk, it was confirmed late on Wednesday night by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. The virus tested positive for the H7 strain - not the deadly type of H5N1 responsible for causing the deaths of more than 100 people around the world.
The first case of bird flu to be found in a farmed flock in Britain is now under intense investigation by veterinary surgeons and animal health experts.
The initial tests, which were carried out at Weybridge, Surrey, by the Central Science Laboratory, have revealed that the virus is not the lethal H5N1 type found in a dead swan at Cellardyke, in Fife, Scotland last month.
Movement restrictions have been imposed at the farm at North Tuddenham, near Dereham, while investigations into the possible sources of the infection continue. Officials at Defra last night stressed that the entire flock of 35,000 chickens will be slaughtered as part of precautions to prevent the potential spread of the disease.
A decision is expected to be made later today when the birds will be destroyed as part of the precautions. A Defra official also said movement restrictions have not yet been extended beyond the site of the H7 bird flu infection.
However, it is expected that a 3km ban on poultry movements and a further 10km surveillance zone from the Tuddenham farm will be established when scientists have made further tests.
"The farm has been locked tight and we have veterinary surgeons and animal health experts already on site," a Defra official added.
Mid-Norfolk MP Keith Simpson, who will be speaking to Defra's Animal Health Minister Ben Bradshaw later today, said: "The first priority is public health and public reassurance. Taking immediate action, as they have done, is the right decision."
"We need to make certain we can find out as far as we can where it originated from," said Mr Simpson, who stressed that while public health remained the highest priority, bird flu was a threat to poultry.
Mr Simpson said while public health was the highest priority, it was also important to consider the impact of the Norfolk economy and employment and ensure there was not panic.
A leading Norfolk poultry farmer, Nigel Joice, said: "This is very bad news because it has been found in a farmed flock. We just didn't need this."
He stressed that the H7 strain was not the same type as H5N1, which has spread across the world from the Far East and into Europe.
"This is a disease of birds," said Mr Joice, who is the regional chairman of the National Farmers' Union's poultry board.
The last major outbreak of the H7 strain devastated the Dutch poultry industry in 2003 when a total of 32 million birds were slaughtered as part of the control measures.
Mr Joice, of East Raynham, near Fakenham, said that all poultry farmers have been taking the very strictest precautions against bird flu. "This is an obvious concern because it seems as if it has been brought in to the farm - possibly from someone who has been in contact with other poultry or a bird fair," said Mr Joice. He also said that the breeder flock of chickens would not go for human consumption, which was a further reason for public confidence.
Defra's chief veterinary officer, Debbi Reynolds, said last night that tests were being carried out to check the precise nature of the H7 strain. The crucial question was whether it was a high pathogenic or low pathogenic strain. "Speaking on BBC24, she said: "Atr the moment we are not aware of the answer to that. We need the laboratoy tests." She said that there had not been many deaths on the farm and the outbreak had been spotted through abnormalities in egg production.
There is no risk to human health from eating eggs or chicken, which is properly cooked, the Food Standards Agency said last night.
If you find a dead swan, goose or duck or three or more dead wild, or garden birds together in the same place, please report this to Defra, via the Defra Helpline on 08459 33 55 77.
If the dead bird is a single, small garden, or wild bird then you do not need to call Defra.

DEFRA says no to EU avian flu compensation
27/04/2006 12:28:00 Website EAS
EU farm ministers signed off new legislation this week giving the EU Commission powers to compensate producers for losses of income due the impact of avian flu on demand for eggs and poultry meat, but DEFRA has ruled out any sector aid for the UK.
Under the new rules, the EU will fund half of the compensation - not 100% as originally requested by the European Parliament - with the remaining half financed by the MemberState's national budget. It will be up to member states to submit their proposals for sector aid.
Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said: "Some countries have suffered a serious drop in consumption and prices in the poultry sector which could not be adequately compensated with the existing tools.
"In my view, the most sensible approach would be to compensate producers for measures which temporarily reduce production."
Peter Bradnock, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, believes there is justification for DEFRA to submit a proposal. He said: "Parts of the industry have been hit hard with low prices - and we have maintained consumer confidence at a considerable cost."
However, DEFRA told Poultry World that it does not plan to submit a proposal at this point in time.
A spokeman added: "We are monitoring the market closely and it seems to be holding up well."

35,000 chickens slaughtered

Norfolk bird flu: more tests as chickens culled
By Brian Farmer and Alison Purdy, PA Published: 27 April 2006 - independent
The farm at the centre of the latest bird flu outbreak was named today as Witford Lodge Farm at Hockering, Norfolk.
Police officers stood guard at the entrance to the farm after a number of dead chickens tested positive for the virus.
All of the 35,000 chickens at the farm will now be slaughtered, as bio-security measures are put in place to prevent the spread of the virus.
Tests are being carried out today to establish the exact strain of the virus but preliminary test results show that it was likely to be the H7 strain rather than H5N1, which has been responsible for the deaths of more than 100 people, mainly in Asia.
"Preliminary tests have indicated that the avian influenza virus is present in samples of chickens found dead on a poultry farm near Dereham in Norfolk," said the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last night.
"Further tests are being carried out to determine the strain of the virus. "The preliminary test results show that it is likely to be the H7 strain of avian influenza and not H5N1. "As a precautionary measure, birds on the premises will be slaughtered on suspicion of an avian notifiable disease."
The spokeswoman added that restrictions had been placed on the firm, and that further action may be taken when the additional laboratory results were known.
Last month a wild swan that was found dead in the harbour of a coastal town in Scotland was found to have died of avian flu. That bird, which was discovered in Cellardyke, Fife, tested positive for the deadly H5N1 version of the virus
Although hundreds of wild birds have been tested in the last few months, the swan in Fife remains the only case of H5N1 to have been discovered in the UK. While H7 versions of the disease can be highly pathogenic among poultry, and have crossed the species barrier to humans, outbreaks in people have been less serious than those of H5N1.
Some experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate and develop into a flu pandemic which could put millions of lives at risk.

too early to tell? why cull the birds then?

Chicken cull ordered as bird flu strain found
Thu Apr 27, 2006 By Luke Macgregor DEREHAM (Reuters) -
The government is to start culling 35,000 birds on a poultry farm in the east of the country on Thursday after a strain of bird flu was detected in chickens.
Preliminary tests showed the virus was likely to be an H7 strain of bird flu, not the lethal H5N1 avian virus that has infected 204 people and killed 113 since 2003.
"There is no evidence this is H5N1. We think it will turn out to be H7," the government's chief vet Debby Reynolds said.
She said tests were continuing but there was unlikely to be any further information on the outbreak until Thursday evening at the earliest.
"It is far too early to say how serious this is," she told a news conference in London.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said all birds on the farm near Norwich, an area which is home to some of Europe's biggest poultry farms, would be killed as soon as possible as a precautionary measure.Britain has been on high alert for bird flu since it discovered the lethal H5N1 virus in a wild swan in Scotland earlier this month. The swan was the only wild bird found in Britain so far to have the H5N1 virus, which has spread from Asia to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and led to the death and culling of 200 million birds 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. Animal health experts had not yet decided whether to impose an exclusion zone around the poultry farm near the market town of Dereham to prevent the spread of the virus. Results of the tests will determine whether it is highly pathogenic or low pathogenic.
Freda Scott-Park, the president of the British Veterinary Association, said the avian flu strain did not pose a threat to public health. But she said poultry workers and veterinarians looking after the farm would have to take extra precautions.
"There is absolutely no risk to health," she said.
That view was supported by Anthony Gibson, spokesman for the National Farmers' Union. "The implications for public health and for the safety of eating properly cooked chicken and eggs are zero," he said.
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.
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. - reuters.co.uk

Avian Influenza Test Result On Dead Chickens, Norfolk, England, Defra
10:18 PM, April 28th 2006 by Playfuls Team
Preliminary tests have this evening indicated that the avian influenza virus is present in samples from chickens found dead on a poultry farm near Dereham in Norfolk. Further tests are being carried out to determine the strain of the virus and more will be known tomorrow. The preliminary test results show that it is likely to be the H7 strain of avian influenza, and not H5N1. Further confirmatory tests are in progress to determine the pathogenicity.
As a precautionary measure birds on the premises will be slaughtered on suspicion of an avian notifiable disease. Restrictions have been placed on the farm. When the additional laboratory results are known further action may be taken.
Avian Influenza is a disease of birds and whilst it can pass very rarely and with difficulty to humans, this requires extremely close contact with infected birds, particularly faeces. At this stage there is no definite confirmation that this is a virus that has human health implications. As a precautionary measure those who might have been exposed would be offered the appropriate treatment and protection in line with established protocols. Advice from the Food Standards Agency remains that properly cooked poultry and poultry products, including eggs, are safe to eat.
Avian influenza viruses in poultry have the potential to be highly pathogenic if the virus is of the H7 type. All avian influenzas (H1 to H16) can be low pathogenic but only H5 and H7 can become highly pathogenic.

Norfolk Poultry Worker Contracts H7N3 Bird Flu Strain, UK
Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu News 28 Apr 2006
Written by: Christian Nordqvist - Editor: Medical News Today
One of the poultry workers who worked at Witford Lodge Farm in Norfolk, England, has become infected with the H7N3 Bird Flu virus strain. He is not in hospital, as H7 does not make humans very ill, but he has conjunctivitis. He or she had been in close physical contact with infected birds. The worker does not want to be named. Antiviral Tamiflu was administered to poultry workers on the farm as a precautionary measure.
H7N3 infected birds had been found in the Norfolk farm a few days ago. Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of H7N3.
The H7N3 strain was last found in the UK in 1979.
The H5N1 strain is the dangerous one for humans, not the H7N3 one. It is not easily transmitted from bird to human, or from human to human. Authorities in the UK say the worker has no other symptoms, except for conjunctivitis. The Health Protection Agency said the H7N3 outbreak is not a danger to the public.
People who work in the infected farm have been offered a flu shot. The bird flu virus, if it infects a human who has normal flu, has the opportunity to exchange genetic information with the normal flu virus and mutate - and become transmissible from human to human. A flu shot would reduce the chances of a person ever getting normal flu in the first place.
35,000 chickens will be culled in the infected farm and a 1 kilometre exclusion zone has been placed.

DEFRA fast tracks avian flu rules
28/04/2006 10:42:00 - Author: Richard Allison Poultry World
The avian flu outbreak in Norfolk has prompted DEFRA to fast track new UK legislation this week on avian flu control measures, coming into force before the end of its consultation period.
It follows an agreement with key industry organisations that DEFRA would make the order quickly should the need arise, so that the most up to date controls were in place before the autumn migration season.
The Avian Influenza and Influenza of Avian Origin in Mammals Order 2006, which came into force yesterday [Thursday 27 May], implements most of the requirements of the recent EU Directive.
It brings new powers, allowing a preventative or firebreak cull of poultry, providing powers of entry to test and sample and allow the slaughter of vaccinated poultry, with compensation.

Back to blaming wild birds

A 'dirty boot' was enough to breach bird flu defences
By Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor - timesonline.co.uk April 28, 2006 -
INFECTED faeces from a wild bird carried into a chicken shed on a workman's boot are thought to be the most likely source of a bird flu outbreak on a farm in Norfolk.
Such a breach in biosecurity will be of major concern to Britain's £3 billion-a-year poultry industry, which prides itself on the strict hygiene, cleansing and disinfecting standards observed on commercial farms.
Early indications were that the virus is probably the less virulent, low-pathogenic strain of the H7 flu which can devastate birds but is generally not a threat to human beings.
However, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said that confirmation of the precise strain and virulence of the virus would be delayed until today.
The bird flu case, at a farm at North Tuddenham, is the first in a British commercial unit since the deadly form of avian flu, the H5N1 virus, arrived in Europe. Poultry industry and tourism chiefs admitted that they were "extremely nervous" that the highly virulent H7 strain had arrived in the county. It could effectively close down many villages.
Poultry is worth £1 billion a year to Norfolk and 40,000 jobs depend on the industry. Free range farmers in the county immediately locked up their birds to protect them from the disease threat.
State vets and epidemiologists were urgently tracing possible sources of contamination at Witford Lodge Farm, one of 30 units in Norfolk run by Banham Poultry UK. A 1km surveillance zone was set up around the infected farm and movement restrictions were in place on all other premises operated by Banham.
Sources at the company said that the most likely reason for contamination was wild bird faeces picked up outdoors and carried into a chicken house on foot. A cull of 35,000 chickens on the farm will begin early today. All the birds will be humanely despatched. Each will be caught, stunned, then placed in a chamber where carbon monoxide will gas them.
The birds were breeding stock and not destined for the dinner table. Banhams is expected to claim as much as £100,000 in compensation for the cull. A Banhams spokesman insisted last night that staff followed the strictest possible bio-security rules. Birds and eggs were transported in company vehicles. Only two or three men worked on the infected farm.
Norfolk accounts for a third of British poultry production and farmers voiced their fears about the knock-on effects of the bird flu virus yesterday.
Mark Gorton, director of Traditional Norfolk Poultry, which has eighteen organic chicken and turkey farms, two of which are near Witford Lodge, said: "We are worried about it as it devastated the Dutch industry. We are keeping our fingers crossed it's not going to spread."
He said that the real worry was where the virus had come from. "The birds are inside so it can't have been from a wild bird and if it was from a vehicle, where did the vehicle come from and where has it gone? "The poultry industry is a huge industry here, with an enormous amount of local suppliers and distributors. The knock-on effects would be very serious but we're hoping that we'll come out the other side."
Paul Leveridge, who keeps about 15,000 ducks on a farm about two miles away in Mattishall, said: "Every poultry farmer is worried, especially as this is now in Norfolk, the heart of the poultry industry."
The H7 flu virus has been found in chickens in northern Italy since 1999, but the last outbreak in the UK was in 1998 on a turkey farm in Northern Ireland.
Nigel Joice, the eastern region representative of the National Farmers' Union poultry committee, said that while members were concerned they were not in a panic. Mr Joice, who runs a poultry farm in Fakenham, said that they were more worried that people would stop eating poultry than the outbreak. He said: "It's not great, unfortunately. People associate it with a pandemic."
Mr Joice said that the East Anglian industry was different from that in the Netherlands, where an outbreak of H7 strain of the virus wiped out a third of poultry and cost millions of euros in 2003. "We've learnt a lot of lessons since then and the Dutch poultry industry is a lot more densely populated than ours."

Behind the headlines at bird flu farm
NICK HEATH - 28 April 2006 - edp24.co.uk
The scene is a tranquil one, a lone farmworker in blue coveralls ambles around five deserted chicken sheds in the morning sunshine.
Inside the eerily quiet farm a scattering of plastic bowls and disinfectant spray pumps are the only clues that this is the scene of the UK's first outbreak of the H7-strain of the bird flu virus in 15 years.
Just metres away on the other side of a tall steel gate two police officers guard Whitford Lodge Poultry Farm, keeping the scrum of journalists, cameramen and photographers at bay.
The narrow country lane that leads to the farm is lined by cars, satellite trucks and radio vans feeding back what little information trickles through.
The few officials on scene, a handful of police and a communications officer from Norfolk County Council know little more than the media pack, who wait for Defra officials to arrive.
The first sign of a government response comes at 10.20am when two officials and two vets from Defra are ushered in and kitted out in blue coveralls, face masks and protective rubber wellies.
Closely behind is a water tanker loaded with eight 10kg tubs of VikronS disinfectant, which claims to be effective against all 18 types of virus affecting man and animals.
The fate of the 35,000 birds becomes apparent soon afterwards with the arrival of a lorry laden with cylinders of the deadly gas argon followed by another vehicle bearing sealed steel gas chambers.
As the day wore on, the ground ran white with disinfectant foam as 12 state veterinary service doctors and vets in blue and white coveralls passed through the gate, their hazardous task reflected by the shielded gas-masks worn by a select few.
Working their way from shed to shed, the shrouded figures prepared the chickens for the cull and took more blood samples from the flock.
The killing began at about 4pm yesterday and will continue today, with chickens either being gassed or shot with a stun gun.
Evidence of the grisly work was apparent from the bulging yellow sacks of carcasses which were driven away to be rendered or incinerated off-site.
The first birds are believed to have died on Saturday, with the number totalling about 400 birds, about 0.02pc of the total population.
Owners Banham Poultry submitted blood from the birds for testing after workers noticed some were showing reduced appetite and poor egg-production, with test results confirming the virus late on Tuesday.
Kimblewick Equestrian Centre is the farm's closest neighbour and owner Sarah Moore, 40, fears her family may have already been unwittingly exposed to the virus. On Monday, their Rottweiler-cross Ziggy dumped a dead chicken from the farm in their garden, whose stinking carcass lay in a pile of manure at the stables until Defra vets took it away late yesterday. Mrs Moore, her son Ryan, 16, daughter Nikkita, 14, and son Declan, 8, are angry that an official and vet from the farm who warned them to bury the bird on Tuesday made no mention that chickens had tested positive for bird flu.
Defra experts recommended that both Mrs Moore and Nikkita take Tamiflu and are given a flu vaccination.
Mrs Moore is concerned that fear of the virus and government movement restrictions will force her 16-horse riding school under, destroying the business which she has built up over eight years and attracts 120 riders a week.
"People have been constantly phoning me since this, worrying about whether they will be able to bring their kids for riding today," she said. "If people stop coming here then we can keep the yard running for a week at most before we will have to close, that is the real worry. This is bad timing because the bank holiday weekend is a busy time for us."

Two farms in bird flu infection
Saturday, 29 April 2006 - BBC News
Two poultry farms, close to a farm in Norfolk infected with bird flu, have found the disease in their livestock.
The latest infected areas are close to Witford Lodge Farm, where some 35,000 chickens were slaughtered after an avian flu strain was found. The government said initial tests showed the farms were affected by a less serious strain than the deadly H5N1 which killed a swan in Fife. Two free range flocks will be slaughtered, officials said.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said that preliminary results indicated the farms were affected by the H7N3 strain of avian flu.
The strain found at Witford Lodge Farm, which is in North Tuddenham about 13 miles (20km) west of Norwich, was also the H7 type. It is virulent among chickens but less of a threat to humans than the H5N1 variant.
Officials said risk to the public remained "extremely low" despite the fact that a poultry worker at Witford Lodge had contracted the virus in the form of conjunctivitis. A Heath Protection Agency spokeswoman said that no other poultry workers at the farm had shown symptoms of illness caused by H7 avian flu.
Restricted zone
Discussing the latest outbreak, a Defra spokesman said: "The two free range flocks will be slaughtered on suspicion of an avian notifiable disease." A restricted zone has been created, extending 1km from each of the infected premises.
The spokesman added: "The State Veterinary Service is tracing movements and contacts, the necessary surveillance and all appropriate worker protection measures have been put in place."
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."
She said the working hypothesis remained that the most likely source of the virus was from another premises or from wild birds.
'Low risk'
A Defra spokeswoman said the two new farms which tested positive for avian flu did have the same owner. The spokeswoman said that one farm had 7,500 chickens and the other had 7,800 chickens.
Last month a swan in Cellardyke, Fife, tested positive for H5N1 - the only confirmed case in the UK so far.
An outbreak of an H7 variation, called H7N7, in the Netherlands led the Dutch government to order the slaughter of more than 30 million birds in 2003. The 2003 outbreak in the Netherlands infected more than 80 people and led to the death of one vet.
The H5N1 virus has killed more than 100 people in Asia. But neither strain poses a large-scale threat to humans as bird flu cannot pass easily from one person to another. However, some experts fear the H5N1 virus could mutate and trigger a flu pandemic, potentially putting millions of human lives at risk.

Danger of bird flu leads to innumerable massacre!
Submitted by varsha on Mon, 2006-05-01 Healthcare - livepunjab.com
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”

Pandemic Possible From at Least Four Bird Flu Strains
May 3 (Bloomberg) -- At least four strains of bird flu are capable of sparking the next pandemic, including the H5N1 virus that's killed more than half the 205 people it's known to have infected since 2003, virologist Robert Webster said.
Avian influenza strains identified as H2, H9 and H7 subtypes also may change into forms that can be passed easily from human to human, said Webster, the Rosemary Thomas professor at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
When the next flu pandemic may occur and whether it will be as lethal as the one in 1918, which killed as many as 50 million people worldwide, is impossible to predict, Webster said yesterday in an interview in Singapore, where he is addressing an avian flu forum sponsored by the Lancet medical journal.
"I have been studying this thing for 40 years and there is no way that you can predict,'' Webster, 73, said. "I don't rule out H5N1 at the moment.''
Concern over the H5N1 virus, which has killed at least 113 of 205 people infected since late 2003, has made governments worldwide aware that eventually an avian flu strain will cause a major outbreak, Webster said. H5N1 now presents the greatest pandemic threat, he said.
"It is the worst influenza virus that I have ever seen,'' Webster said. "When you put it in a ferret, it causes hind leg paralysis and goes to the brain. Don't take it lightly, because it could wipe the hell out of us.''
Duck Host
A pandemic occurs when a new influenza virus emerges and starts spreading as easily as seasonal flu, through coughing and sneezing, according to the World Health Organization. Flu pandemics can only be caused by type A viruses. The natural host of A-type flu viruses, which includes H5N1, is the migratory duck, Hiroshi Kida, professor of disease control at Japan's Hokkaido University in Sapporo, told the forum.
Humans have no natural immunity to the H5N1 virus, making it likely that people who contract any pandemic flu strain based on H5N1 will become more seriously ill than when infected by seasonal flu, the WHO said. The United Nations agency is tracking the spread of the virus in the event it becomes pandemic in humans.
Seasonal flu usually kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people worldwide, according to the agency. Most deaths from seasonal flu in developed countries occur in people over 65. So far this year, 60 H5N1 cases and 37 fatalities have been reported worldwide, compared with 95 cases and 41 fatalities in the whole of 2005.
Egyptian Case
The tally excludes a suspected infection in a 27-year-old woman from Egypt's el-Sharabiya district. The North African country's 13th case was reported by Egyptian health authorities yesterday, Xinhua said, citing a report by Egypt's official MENA news agency.
The woman, who had been in contact with infected fowl, was admitted to a Cairo hospital on May 1 with fever and respiratory illness, the report said.
The H5N1 virus is reported to have infected birds in 34 countries across three continents this year. In Asia, almost 200 million domestic fowl have died or been culled to contain the spread of H5N1, costing countries more than $10 billion, the World Bank said in January.
"H5N1 is in the picture because it's so widespread in birds and because it does occasionally jump over to humans and to other mammals,'' Thijs Kuiken, a veterinary pathologist at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, said in an interview today. "There is always the chance that it will mutate in such a way that it can transmit easily among humans. For the other viruses, we don't really know that.''
1890s
H2 avian-flu subtypes have been circulating since at least as early as the 1890s and are capable of infecting poultry and wild birds. One variant, H2N2, was responsible for a flu pandemic in 1957 that killed an estimated 2 million people.
"H2 is out there and could equally well come back,'' Webster said.
In almost all human H5N1 cases, infection was caused by close contact with sick or dead birds, such as children playing with them, or adults butchering them or taking off the feathers, according to the Geneva-based WHO.
"Every country is in danger, and every country must prepare,'' Richard Horton, the Lancet's editor, told the two-day forum attended by representatives from 53 countries. "Any pandemic will be sudden with no advanced warning. Infection control practices could be severely constrained and civilian order may be hard to'' ensure, he said.

Bird flu been in Norfolk for six weeks
NICK HEATH - 03 May 2006 edp24.co.uk
Bird flu has been in Norfolk since mid-March but was undetected for almost six weeks, a government report revealed today.
The study released by Defra found that chickens began dying from the H7N3-virus on a free-range farm at North Tuddenham, near Dereham, on March 25, with the infection taking hold on about March 20 and spreading to a second farm 11 days later.
Deaths were at double and triple the normal rate among the 15,500 chickens at the Norwich Road and Mowles Manor farms, owned by Geoffrey and Simon Dann, and there was evidence of cannibalism and low egg production.
The farms' vet initially attributed the deaths to a power failure at one of the farms but symptoms continued and were not reported to Defra until April 27, a day after the outbreak at Whitford Lodge Farm, North Tuddenham, was confirmed.
Defra vets have ruled out Whitford Lodge as the source and are looking into the possibility that infection arrived through wild birds.
Farmers' leaders said the virus slipped 'under the radar' because it was such a mild strain and poultry farms were looking out for mass casualties, not the 400 out of 34,500 that died at Whitford Lodge.
Mid Norfolk MP Keith Simpson said: “This report has raised serious questions. We need some answers to clear the air about what Defra did and the responsibility locally as well. In the interests of the poultry industry there should be complete transparency.”
He said he accepted that vets could not report every single concern about a bird's health to Defra and said there needed to be “a balance of responsibility”.
Nigel Joice, regional National Farmers Union poultry board member, said: “I think the fact it stayed undetected for such a long time just proves what a low pathogenic strain it was. “All of the local poultry farmers were expecting that if we had bird flu there would be dead chickens here, there and everywhere. “The timeline and length of time it went undetected is a slight concern but we are pleased that so far all the farms around the area are testing negative for the disease and that it would not appear to have contributed to the spread of the disease.“Defra are out there now like a bunch of detectives trying to find out how it got here and I hope they do but I wouldn't be surprised if they don't.”
The Epidemiology Report states that workers noticed signs of anorexia, reduced egg production and quality and a quadrupling of the death rate in the 34,500 French-imported broiler breeders at Whitford Lodge Farm on April 20 and tests by Defra confirmed the disease on April 26.
Of Banham Poultry's 34 other farms in Norfolk and Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, only two of the associated broiler breeder farms have yet to be given the all-clear.
One broiler-breeder farm was found to have a case of infectious bronchitis.
Dennis Foreman, a director at Banham Poultry, welcomed the report and said he never doubted that Whitford Lodge Farm was not the source of the outbreak.
Animal health experts have been unable to establish a link between the outbreaks at the three farms.
Nobody from the Dann family could be contacted to comment on the report.
To read out the report in full visit the Defra website: www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/ai/latest-situation/index.htm

Chickens could be suffocated in flu outbreak
By Valerie Elliott, Countryside Editor - Timesonline.co.uk
MILLIONS of chickens could be killed by suffocation if an epidemic of avian flu in Britain threatened human health.
Emergency legislation was placed before Parliament during the May Day Bank Holiday giving Margaret Beckett, the Rural Affairs Secretary, the power to order "ventilation shutdown" at chicken farms. This would remove oxygen flow from chicken houses.
Birds could take up to a day to die, depending on their age and size and the time of year. Death would be caused by a combination of overheating, bird flu and lack of oxygen.
The plan has outraged animal welfare organisations, which are demanding clarification about the method of slaughter. Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and the RSPCA said that the powers were in breach of standards laid down by the World Organisation for Animal Health, based in Paris. They are demanding to know under what "exceptional circumstances" the method could be used.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed last night that an amendment to the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 gave the authority for such a cull. A spokesman said that it was "not the method of choice" and would be used only if state vets had no other means to remove infected birds quickly.
In an epidemic, however, and if human infection were a possibility, Defra fears that some poultry workers may decline to help in the usual methods of culling - rounding up birds by hand, stunning them and humanely gassing them in a mobile chamber. The plan is certain to put Mrs Beckett and Ben Bradshaw, the Animal Welfare Minister, on a collision course with many Labour backbenchers and Opposition MPs.
Peter Ainsworth, the Shadow Rural Affairs Secretary, condemned the move as "barbaric", and expressed anger about the secrecy in drawing up the new powers.
"Issuing emergency powers on a Bank Holiday weekend is not the way to go about business and we would not support a policy of deliberate suffering that is inhumane," he said.
Philip Lymbery, the chief executive of CIWF, said: "Ventilation shutdown is likely to be no better than simply burying birds alive, and is therefore totally unacceptable on welfare grounds.
"Any outbreak of avian flu has got to be dealt with swiftly and efficiently, of course, but also humanely."
John Avizienius, the RSPCA head of farm animals, said: "It's hard to conceive of a scenario where this would be needed, but the RSPCA would not endorse ventilation shutdown as a humane method of slaughter. We also have concerns about how 'exceptional circumstances' would be interpreted."
Peter Bradnock, the chief executive of the British Poultry Council, said that the industry had not been consulted on the powers. The Times has learnt, however, that approving death by suffocation during an epidemic may be an attempt to win approval for the gassing of entire chicken houses during a virulent avian flu outbreak. State vets and industry chiefs believe that gassing flocks would be the quickest and most humane form of slaughter if the deadly flu virus took hold.
Trials took place in Northern Ireland last autumn, when a combination of carbon dioxide and argon emerged as the fastest and kindest method of killing.
During the less virulent H7N3 alert last week a gassing trial took place in Norfolk, organised by the Scottish Executive. It is understood that state vets, the fire brigade and Health and Safety Executive officials monitored the use of gas in an empty shed. The aim was to find out how much gas would be needed to ensure that birds were killed, and how best the gas should be introduced into a unit.
The method was used in the Netherlands three years ago to wipe out most of 30 million birds kept on commercial farms producing chicken for human consumption.
Farmers and poultry companies have welcomed the trials, saying that culling birds quickly could be vital in an outbreak of avian flu.
About 118 million chickens are kept in commercial units; only about eight million are free range. There are also about another 30 million that are reared indoors for their eggs.
On some of the 2,000 farms in Britain there may be more than a million birds at any one time, with about 55,000 kept in sheds 300ft long and 80ft wide, and from 7ft high in the eaves to 15ft in the middle.

Payments 'less than cost of cull'
NICK HEATH - 03 May 2006 12:40 - new.edp24.co.uk
Farming leaders last night warned that Government compensation for flocks culled during Norfolk's bird flu outbreak would fall far short of farmers' total costs.
About 50,000 birds have been slaughtered on three farms in North Tuddenham, near Dereham, since the H7N3 virus was first detected last Tuesday.
Bosses at Banham Poultry which owns Whitford Lodge Farm, where the disease was first identified, admitted none of its 35,000 broiler breeder hens - worth anywhere between £3 and £8 each - were insured and said he hoped for adequate compensation from Defra.
But Nigel Joice, regional member of the National Farmers Union poultry board, warned that compensation packages being offered will only meet the cost of healthy birds slaughtered and not match huge losses in areas like lost egg production.
He said that poultry farmers receive no Government subsidy and would be reliant on compensation to be able to continue operating within the industry's very small profit margins.
He said: "In no way will the compensation package which is being prepared cover the costs. "Any compensation will be for the value of the bird on the day and not take into account consequential loss payment."If the birds are at the start of their laying life then those consequential costs could be enormous. "The problem is it is on the back of the Foot and Mouth crisis, which proved very costly to the Government and the taxpayer. "We are not very optimistic about the compensation that will be offered but as an industry we have proved that we are prepared to slaughter first and worry about compensation later."
He also raised concerns over how Defra will classify which birds are healthy or diseased when it comes to compensation.
Dennis Foreman, a director at Banham Poultry, said that the farm was focused on restoring its business but said it needed some way to recover its costs.
"In this hard industry with the bottom line getting tougher all the time, with situations like the energy crisis, anything you can get back is a benefit," he said.
Restrictions on movements from Banham Poultry's 30 other farms are slowly being lifted with three farms being allowed to move poultry in-and-out under licence.
At the weekend 15,000 further chickens were culled at Mowles Manor and Norwich Road farms, owned by Geoffrey and Simon Dann, after birds at the farm tested positive for the disease on Saturday.
A temporary drop in egg production at the Norwich Road Farm two weeks ago triggered suggestions that the free-range farm could be the source of the outbreak, particularly as the open-air nature means they are more vulnerable to infection from wild birds.
Any free-range farm forced to bring birds inside due to Defra restrictions will not lose its free-range status providing the chickens are back outside within 12-weeks.
Defra officials were continuing to test for the disease yesterday and monitor the 1km-surveillance zone around the three farms, with a couple of more local farms reporting testing negative for suspected outbreaks.
A spokesman said an epidemiological report into the likely source of the outbreak would be released within the next couple of days.
A second farm worker is suspected to have the disease after displaying symptoms of conjunctivitis, the human form of the disease, and was being tested yesterday. Four other workers from Whitford Lodge Farm have been tested, with one testing positive so far.
Local Labour Euro MP Richard Howitt, has tabled an urgent parliamentary question to the European Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson calling on him to challenge a ban on British poultry introduced by Japan and Hong Kong, as illegal under international trade rules.
Provided there are no more confirmed outbreaks Mr Joice said he hoped there would be no long-term repercussions for the industry.

Fish Flu?!!!

Rare virus kills thousands of farmed trout
James Meikle - Wednesday May 31, 2006 - The Guardian
Thousands of rainbow trout have been killed by a rare virus that is posing "a very serious threat" to stocks, the government said yesterday. Fish have died or been destroyed in an outbreak on a farm in Yorkshire and movement restrictions have been placed on more than 30 other premises in an area from the Pennines to the coast near Scarborough and Bridlington. Fisheries officials are also checking on the health of wild fish across the catchment area of the river Ouse after the first case of viral haemorrhagic septicaemia (VHS) in mainland Britain.
The only other known instance was on the Scottish island of Gigha in farmed turbot in 1994, but the disease has caused significant losses at trout farms elsewhere in Europe. The government and industry officials said there were no risks to human health.
"It is exceedingly bad news," said Nick Read, the chairman of the British Trout Association. "Yorkshire is one of the important trout growing areas for the country. Some [of the farms] are key to other areas of the country. They run hatcheries or produce fingerlings [young trout] that are grown on in other areas."
The outbreak was confirmed last Friday at an unidentified farm which raises fish for food. Nineteen tonnes of fish either died from the disease or were slaughtered through electronic stunning in the water. It is not known exactly how much stock that represents, but there can be as many as 3,000 fully grown fish to the tonne. The farm site is to be drained and disinfected.
Experts are trying to identify whether the virus came from other fish farms in the area, another part of the country or wild fish.