H5N1 Back in UK

[Oola]

Seems another farm in Diss today is having to have most of the turkeys culled due to the appearance of the H5N1 virus.

Why do you think it has reappeared? Should there be a limit on the size of farms and the amount of birds they house?

I think the government be helping out smaller farms and smallholdings, in a bid to try and keep poultry farms smaller, more sanitised and promote free ranging birds. I think the smaller the flock, the easier it is to see when a bird is sick, limiting the spread of disease and viruses like these. There also needs to be an understanding that you just cannot have cheap meat and poultry without facing consequences such as these. Petrol prices have risen, and not much is being said about that. The cost of eggs has increased now due to the increase in poultry feed. I don't see why meat and poultry prices can't rise too. The factory-style farms need to become a thing of the past, but in order for that to happen consumers need to change their habits and expectations. I fear that a generation has been raised without giving a second thought to the processes in the meat and poultry industry. It's just scary.

[Ivy]

I think this whole avian flue thing is a matter of men being too greedy and trying to press nature to it's limits. The sad thing is now that free range birds must be kept inside (somewhere where they are not supposed to be) giving the defenders of chickenfactories the advantage to say : see its not save to keep them outside". When we had a great outbrake of this disease two years ago organic farmers were not allowed to sell the eggs as organic eggs anymore as they were not produced by free range chicken. A lot of farmers slaughtered their hens and never got back to chicken farming. Horrible isn't it?

[JerseyLily]

I too have seen reports of the outbreak on the mainland, and it crossed my mind that although there was a suggestion that migrating birds were the carriers of the disease there was no proof of evidence that that was the case. In fact I haven't noticed any reported cases of dead wild birds (H5N1 or related) on any news footage.

Perhaps it's a bit like MRSA and other hospital super bugs, they are there, we know they are, but overcrowding and lack of everyday bio security helps the damn bugs to get established. And as for overcrowding in hospitals, isn't it amazing how many people who are absolutely nothing to do with the caring side of hospital routine tramp onto and through wards at will. Mostly, I might add, thee are admin staff with clip-boards and file folders whom I've seen as not bothering to wash their hands when entering a ward and think nothing of rifling through papers and files that nurses have to handle. In any case, we all carry MRSA up our noses it's just that most of us are immune until our immune systems go awry due to illness et cetera.

[jazzactivist]

I agree with all of you that it seems that intensive farming is the cause of the disease spreading between flocks, even if the original infection is brought in by migrating birds. Your point on carrying infection and it only being activated in less than ideal health or environmental conditions makes sense, JerseyLily. I also think that it is time for the government to limit the size of animal breeding farms, and perhaps also have a big campiagn and TV programmes on alternatives to turkey for Christmas dinner.

[Ivy]

Unfortunately it is not true that the outbreak of avian flue is restricted or focussed on intensive farming. The first cases we had here were wild swans. Only monthe later organic reared and free range geese were infected . This does not explain where the virus came from but it is the way it spread in northern Germany.

[SheepyJames]

Although I agree that intensive farming causes a lot of problems , I agree with Ivy on this one. It is a disease which has tracked across Europe from Asia along the path of migrating birds. The reason it has spread amongst the farms here is that the workers who clean out these intensive units after each batch of birds, tend to move around from farm to farm and so help to spread it once it is established. All birds are prey to it - the organic, free-range ones normally being the most at risk.