I'm incensed!

[MoonGoddess]

I'm incensed about the stupidity of our politicians in the UK. The following started my fall into incensed-dom:

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The voices in my head told me to clean the guns - are you really sure you want to annoy me today

 

[gardnmom]

 

Yeah we will find out when 10% of our community has come down with the AF.

They still refrain from stating that the biggest reason that they will not be able to produce vaccine is because by the time they have confirmed that it is H to H there will be enough chickens left to lay the eggs to make a vaccine. They hint at it, but won't come right out and say it.

 

[Guest Guest]

UKGuy...

 

my brain hurt from trying to figure out exactly what this moron said too!

 

"It's not inevitable but it is clear, obviously, that it's more likely than it was when it was further away,"

 

talk about double talk going no where!

 

I bought 30 pounds of chicken, I am freezing it cause I just don't feel like canning today. But I will be canning this week. I won't take my large canner out for this small job, but will be canning 5 quarts at a time every day until done then back to the store for more.

 

Which brings me to a question.. do you can? or think it is called Jar?

 

 

 

[Guest Guest]

Nothing infuriates me more than when someone can *look ya in the eye* and they believe you'll actually believe their garbage.

 

It's actually quite tragic. What will he be thinking or saying when all his advice has hurt thousands upon thousands of people. *sigh* I dunno but I certainly wouldn't wanna be responsible for that.

 

I'm just grateful that you and many others over in the UK are intelligent and strong enough to think for themselves and to prepare in a manner that is responsible for themselves and their families, regardless of what the politicians may be saying.

 

I know that here in Florida last week, our Govenor held a *pandemic bird flu summit* and is warning and urging the residents of this state to start preparing now to take care of themselves and their families.

 

*darlene throws another plucked hen (courtesy of purdue) into her freezer*...

[Guest Guest]

Here's something I found for ya UKguy;

 

http://www.24dash.com/content/news/viewNew...amp;newsID=3243

 

Human Avian flu pandemic risk increases

 

 

Publisher: Keith Hall

Published: 20/02/2006 - 01:30:30 AM

 

 

Avian flu "the next emerging disease" to threaten humans

 

 

A flu pandemic similar to the 1918 outbreak which killed 50 million people a year could be on its way to the UK following the discovery of the deadly H5N1 strain across the English Channel.

 

John Oxford, Professor of Virology at Barts, claims the likelihood of a human avian flu pandemic was "high and within a span of, say, 18 months".

 

"I'm not alone in thinking that because, again, the World Health Organisation has begged 250 governments around the world - most of which have ignored them - to take this view on and prepare for this outbreak.

 

"Because what we do not want is either a New Orleans situation or a Tsunami situation - that is you could predict something was going to happen but you don't do anything about it to prepare."

 

The relatively small number of deaths so far do not mean the current outbreak will not pose a major risk insists Prof Oxford.

 

Back in 1918 the flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people in a year, also came from a bird in France, and started with just 50 deaths. The similarities are of great concern according to the Professor.

 

"I still personally find it pretty alarming."

 

"That is the danger with influenza - compared to any other virus I know - that it can suddenly transform itself, reinvent itself and spread around the world."

 

Prof Oxford maintained "rather more scientific nations than our own" like Holland can calculate when wild birds were migrating over them and pulled domestic poultry inside.

 

"That is the sort of thing you can do, in other words biosecurity," he said.

 

"The reason we are not doing it here, it just escapes me, quite frankly."

 

The Government have now acknowledged the increased risk, and Ben Bradshaw, the junior minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has today warned the public and the poultry industry to remain vigilant.

 

Poultry keepers have been urged to house birds indoors if needed, and to report suspicious deaths and take bio-security measures following confirmation that a dead bird near Lyon had the virus.

 

Mr Bradshaw says the Government are taking increased measures, including extra surveillance within the last 24 hours.

 

He told GMTV's The Sunday Programme: "It's not inevitable but it is clear, obviously, that it's more likely than it was when it was further away.

 

"The veterinary advice is the risk of imminent infection in the UK is still low but we must remain vigilant."

 

He added: "We are appealing to poultry keepers to be ready to house their birds should such an order be issued, which would happen if there were an outbreak to be found in this country."

 

He said that where the disease was discovered in France and Germany was not on migratory flight paths that carried on to the UK, but poultry keepers should monitor their flocks and report suspicious deaths.

 

"The most important thing is to identify an outbreak quickly," he added.

 

Defence Secretary John Reid said the Government had taken every precaution necessary.

 

"The difficulty if bird flu ever transfers to humans - and it hasn't yet so don't let's panic - if it does, up until the point that it does and mixes with human flu it isn't possible to have a vaccine in advance," he told BBC1's Sunday AM.

 

"It isn't possible to have a vaccine in advance. The most you can do is prepare and have a type of pill you take which diminishes the symptoms after it arrives.

 

"But it hasn't arrived. Don't let's panic. And I'm sure that the Government has got all necessary measures there."

 

The announcement in France comes as the disease spread throughout Europe.

 

In Austria, authorities are ordering all poultry to be kept indoors following strong indications that a wild swan found dead in the capital Vienna would test positive for H5N1.

 

Germany announced another 28 wild birds had been found to have the deadly strain of bird flu, with hundreds more being tested.

 

Greece, Italy and Slovenia have also notified outbreaks, and results are awaited on samples from Austria and Hungary sent to the EU's testing laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey.

 

Outside Europe, India announced its first cases of H5N1 in chickens after 30,000 birds died in the past two weeks in Navapur, Maharashtra and some tested positive for the disease.

 

Professor Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, said bird flu in Britain was not "inevitable".

 

However, he said: "The risk assessment suggests that certainly the probability is a little higher than we thought a few weeks ago."

 

Prof Blakemore told ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme there was "absolutely no evidence" that the disease can be contracted by eating infected animals.

 

"What seems to be required at the moment for these rare human cases seems to be very intimate, close contact between humans and infected chickens," he said.

 

That meant there was a potential risk to those handling poultry, Prof Blakemore said.

 

"That would be risk if the infection were to spread to chickens."

 

Shadow chancellor George Osborne called for a contingency exercise to test Britain's defences to be brought forward from April.

 

"Given Bird Flu has been discovered in France, on our border, I think and the Conservative Party argues, this should be brought forward," he told BBC1's Politics Show.

 

"We should test our systems now.

 

"The other point I make is there needs to be much more public information here.

 

"There has been some communication with large holders of poultry.

 

"But there are many people who have small numbers of chickens and things at home.

 

"A better public information campaign to say this is exactly what is going to happen if we have a Bird Flu case in Britain I think is called for now."

 

Dr Freda Scott-Park, of the British Veterinary Association, told BBC Radio 4's World This Weekend that "significant amounts of surveillance" were already under way.

 

"With this new and renewed threat, a bird affected, a duck infected in France, we are going to push the surveillance levels of wild birds up again," she said.

 

"We are going to have to talk to people on a daily, even an hourly basis, just to see how the situation develops."

 

Shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth said the public needed to know the lessons of Foot and Mouth had been learned.

 

"If I were in the Government's shoes I'd have armies of advisers and vets and scientists providing advice on what to do and it is not for me to second-guess their judgment."

 

"What I think is pressing at the moment is a perceived lack of awareness in the public and amongst poultry owners themselves about what might be required were there to be an outbreak.

 

"And I think the key thing we are looking for the Government to do at the moment is to put right that public information deficit."

 

Mr Ainsworth added: "The fact is that we are talking about a Government department that has less than a glowing track-record in dealing with outbreaks of animal disease.

 

"But let's hope that is behind us and that now we have some really clear contingency plans in place and that means knowing in advance, that means being prepared.

 

"And I think that is where the problem is at the moment. There is a lot of confusion, for example, ministers talk about people bringing birds in doors.

 

"Well if anyone thinks that taking their chickens into their home is going to be the right thing to do they are sadly mistaken."

 

Animal welfare minister Ben Bradshaw said there had been a contingency plan in place for three and a half years that had been approved by the Tories and the NFU.

 

"We are satisfied we have got a good place. We think we have learned the lessons of previous animal disease outbreaks," he told the World This Weekend.

 

Mr Bradshaw said poultry would only be ordered inside once the disease reached this country.

 

However, there will be an "urgent review" of arrangements if wild birds are found with the disease on a migratory route crossing Britain.

 

"Neither of those two conditions is yet met. We don't have an outbreak in wild birds in this country, we don't have an outbreak on a migratory route," he said.

 

"The secret to this is to identify it quickly, to contain it in one place and then to eradicate it.

 

"In fact, both the Dutch and the Germans several months ago, back in the early autumn, brought all their birds indoors - we thought rather precipitously - and then a few weeks later had to let them out again.

 

"Now that caused a great deal of expense, unnecessarily, and a great deal of inconvenience to their industry."

 

"We think we have got a good plan, it is based on a scientific risk assessment, we are keeping the farmers and the poultry keepers informed and we are also asking the public for help."

 

Mr Bradshaw added: "We are confident. We aren't complacent but we think we have got a good plan, we think the poultry industry are very well prepared."

 

Copyright - Press Association 2006

 

 

[Guest Guest]

And another one, UKguy:

 

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=259502006

 

UK experts try to plot flight path for bird flu

RICHARD GRAY

HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

BRITISH bird experts were last night checking the flight paths of migrating birds as the first case of deadly avian flu was confirmed in France.

 

Officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the death of a wild duck in the south of France, the closest case yet to Britain, had increased the chances the virus will arrive in the UK.

 

 

Scientists are plotting migration routes to predict where bird flu might enter the country. If the cold, continental winter continues, more wild birds are expected to fly into Britain seeking milder temperatures.

 

The French agriculture ministry confirmed last night that the presence of the highly-pathogenic H5N1 virus was found in a duck, which was found dead last Monday on a bird reserve 20 miles north of Lyon.

 

A three-kilometre protection zone has already been set up around the outbreak area as well as a seven-kilometre deep surveillance zone. France, Europe's largest poultry producer, is the seventh country on the continent to be hit so far by the bird flu virus. Along with the Netherlands, it has applied to the EU to start preventative vaccination of domestic birds in some areas.

 

The French poultry industry supports 900 million birds on 200,000 farms.

 

Yesterday, further cases emerged around Europe including 28 wild birds diagnosed with the H5N1 virus on a north German island where dead swans and a hawk were found last week to have the disease.

 

Tests on a swan found dead in the Austrian capital, Vienna, also revealed it had been infected with the virus and the Austrian government yesterday warned farmers to keep all their poultry stock indoors.

 

India has also recorded its first cases of H5N1 bird flu in chickens on a farm in western Maharashtra state, while officials also said eight humans were being tested for the disease. A cull of up to 500,000 domestic birds has been announced.

 

Iran confirmed its first cases of H5N1 in its northern province of Gilan, while Indonesia confirmed a man, aged 23, had become the country's 19th bird flu fatality.

 

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said that if the winter on the continent eases, wild birds will not need to fly west. If it continues, however, they could head to Britain.

 

Fred Landeg, Britain's deputy chief veterinary officer, said officials were examining flight paths and weather patterns in a bid to predict whether the virus will arrive on British shores. So far, 3,500 samples from wild birds in the UK had not yet detected H5N1.

 

"The expert ornithologists have advised that ducks from the Lyon region do not normally fly to the UK at this time of the year," Landeg said.

 

"Yet we know that the pochard duck uses the East Atlantic flyway, which is the same migratory path under which the UK lies.We have existing robust surveillance measures in place and have taken over 3,500 samples from wild birds, which so far have not detected H5N1 in the UK."

 

The H5N1 strain has killed at least 90 people worldwide, mainly in south-east Asia, since it emerged in 2003. It can infect humans in close contact with infected birds, but there is no evidence that it can be passed from human to human. Public health experts, however, fear the virus could mutate into a pandemic human flu strain that could cause millions of deaths.

 

Related topic

 

Bird flu

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=161

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=259502006

 

Last updated: 19-Feb-06 00:09 GMT