Bird Flu - Archives
United Kingdom
Guns for Doctors
Headline from The Times of London:
If bird flu grips the nation, doctors will need guns
February 12th, 2007
One OK, Another Being Tested
A vet being tested for possible bird flu infection has been
cleared of the disease.
But a second worker is now being tested.
February 8th, 2007
Uh Oh
A government vet who had been helping at the site of the
British bird flu outbreak is
now in hospital with "mild respiratory problems". Stay tuned.
February 7th, 2007
Always Look on the Bright Side
While conceding that "recession on a scale not seen since the 1930s is a
possibility", the ThisIsMoney.co.uk website finds some
winners from the British bird flu outbreak, namely three drugs
companies, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Acambis.
Meanwhile, "the UK poultry industry was today facing
meltdown over the
bird flu outbreak in England as the list of countries banning imports grew
to at least six".
February 7th, 2007
Pandemic - Britain Getting Ready
Britain prepares for a
human flu pandemic. Meanwhile, virus expert Professor John Oxford
answers your
questions.
February 5th, 2007
Bird Flu in the UK
The European Commission says tests have confirmed that the avian flu
which killed 2,600 turkeys at a Suffolk farm is the
H5N1 virus.
February 3rd, 2007
British Poultry Worker
Has Bird Flu
A worker at the Norfolk
farm where the H7 strain of bird flu was confirmed this week has
developed an eye infection caused by avian flu. He has been given the
drug Tamiflu, but has no respiratory symptoms and is not in hospital.
April 29th,
2006
Did a Workman's Boot Cause a Bird Flu Outbreak?
Britain's latest bird flu scare is still thought to be the H7 strain.
How did it begin?
The
Times reports:
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.
April 28th, 2006
More Bird Flu in Britain
Some 35,000 British chickens are to be killed, after
bird flu was
found in samples of dead birds. Early tests suggest it is the H7 strain,
less dangerous than H5N1.
April 27th, 2006
Bird Flu Tourism
The discovery two weeks ago of an H5N1-infected dead swan at the
Scottish village of Cellardyke was expected to spell economic disaster for
the region. Instead, reports Britain's Sunday Times, there's been a
modest tourism boom.
What attracted the tourists, apparently, were pictures of Cellardyke’s
whitewashed harbourside cottages and its craw-stepped gables flashing up on
television screens. These images were supported by reports that conjured up
the sound of little fishing boats knocking against the harbour wall.
...“The pictures were brilliant,” says Eleanor Bowman,...proprietor of the
Craw’s Nest hotel in Anstruther, just half a mile from Cellardyke. “The
place looked lovely. The weather was terrific.”
April 24th, 2006
Paranoia in Britain
The headline in
Britain’s The Times says it all: “Never mind H5N1: virulent
outbreaks of bird flu phobia are on the horizon.”
No sooner had Sir
David “Don’t Panic!” King, the Government Chief Scientist, reassured us at
the weekend about the “very low” chance of a human outbreak, than a letter
from Sir Liam “We’re Doomed” Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, revealed
plans to close all schools if and when that outbreak occurs, supposedly to
limit the predicted death toll to 50,000 rather than 100,000 children. Just
the thing to jolly up the holidays.
April 14th,
2006
Bird Flu Bites Britain
Villagers in Cellardyke,
where the infected swan was found, have
criticized
authorities for their lax response:
The woman who found the dead bird complained that it took until the next
day for government vets to collect the carcass.
Astonishment greeted
the fact that no police or health officials initially rushed to the site of
what became Britain's first confirmed case of the H5N1 virus.
Villagers were left
to take their own precautions, one resorting to fashioning a simple scrawled
cardboard sign - "dead swan do not touch" - to warn holidaying children and
dog walkers.
A leading vet says the
virus has probably
already spread to other birds in the vicinity.
The Scottish environment
minister has
attacked the Waitrose supermarket group for apparently saying that it
did not stock eggs or poultry from Scotland, where the diseased swan was
found. In fact, egg and poultry sales have so far
remained strong, in sharp contrast to most other countries hit by bird
flu.
April 8th,
2006
Time to Panic?
H5N1 has been
confirmed in the UK. But the real panic probably won’t begin until it
hits the US,
April 7th,
2006
Life Style Extra -
Plague Pits
Here’s an expression I
didn’t know – plague pits. And, of all places, I found it on the
Life Style Extra website:
More than a third of
a million British victims of bird flu are to be buried in plague pits if an
outbreak of the deadly disease takes hold, a leaked government report
revealed.
Mass burials similar
to the plague pits used when the Black Death swept through Britain in the
17th Century will be enforced should the H5N1 strain of the virus mutate and
infect humans.
April 3rd,
2006
It Is Crazy That
People Are Doing This
Now the
British are dumping their pet birds, and bird flu hasn’t even arrived in
the country (yet). According to the
Norwich Evening News:
Budgies, chickens, pigeons and ducks have all been abandoned in the past
few weeks by people believing they might be at risk of contracting the
killer avian flu.
Sanctuary bosses have
warned pet owners they do not have the capacity to take more birds. However,
in just three weeks, 58 birds have been left at Hallswood sanctuary in
Stratton Strawless and even more chickens and cockerels at the PACT animal
sanctuary in Hingham. Two budgies died after being left at Hallswood last
Sunday in freezing conditions.
George Rockingham,
from PACT, said so far four cockerels had been dropped off at the roadside
and brought to his premises, but he expected a lot more.
“The problem is
ignorance,” Mr Rockingham said. “It is crazy that people are doing this
because they are worried about bird flu.
March 11th,
2006
British
Turkey Sales Remain Firm
Bird flu
fears didn’t seem to hurt
US turkey consumption this Thanksgiving. In the UK, where turkey is the
most popular Christmas dish, it also seems likely the impact of bird flu
will be muted, although some industry sources are reporting a slight move
towards roast beef.
According
to
Reuters:
Britain's major
supermarket chains have reported that turkey demand has held up well so far
this year but sales and prices are down at London's Smithfield market where
meat has been traded since the 12th century.
"Orders (for fresh
turkey) are down 35 to 40 percent. It is because of bird flu without a
doubt," said Smithfield meat trader Greg Lawrence, adding he mainly supplies
small butchers.
…Peter Bradnock,
Chief Executive of the British Poultry Council, noted that only a small
proportion of turkeys were traded at the wholesale market in Smithfield with
most consumers buying from supermarkets or even direct from turkey farms.
"We don't think that
stories about bird flu in late October are going to influence any purchasing
decisions before Christmas," he said, noting the widespread media interest
in the bird flu virus which followed news it had reached eastern Europe in
late October had now died down.
December 22nd,
2005
The Dead Duck and the
Dead Parrot
A
dead duck
in Sweden did not die from H5N1. But a
dead
parrot in Britain did.
October 24th,
2005
Now Britain
The
Times
reports:
A PARROT
held in quarantine has died of avian flu - the first case of the disease in
Britain since 1992 - the Government announced last night. It was infected
with the H5 virus, but it has not been confirmed whether this was H5N1, the
most deadly strain of the disease. The bird, which died two days ago, was
one of a consignment of 148 from Surinam, in South America, which arrived in
Britain on September 16.
October 22nd,
2005
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