News
5 FEBRUARY 2007
AVIAN INFLUENZA IN SUFFOLK
Investigations are now underway to discover how turkeys at a Bernard
Matthews farm in Suffolk came to be infected with highly pathogenic
Avian influenza - Britain’s first outbreak in a commercial poultry unit.
160,000 eight-week old turkeys were affected on a farm at Holton near
Lowestoft and according to tests by the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA)
the virus has been identified as the same pathogenic strain as that
found in Hungary in January. The culling of the turkeys has now been
completed and the carcasses are being taken in sealed lorries to a
rendering plant in Staffordshire for incineration.
A Protection Zone of three kilometres radius and a Surveillance Zone of
10 kilometres have been established around the premises - movement
restrictions are imposed and poultry must be isolated from wild birds. A
wider Restricted Zone has also been imposed, covering East Suffolk and
South East Norfolk bounded to the west and the north by the A140 and A47
respectively, an area of approximately 2090sqkm. This requires the
housing of poultry - or containing in pens - and movements to be
licensed.
All bird gatherings - including shows, markets and fairs and pigeon
races - since the weekend of 3-4 February have been banned nationwide
until further notice. This will be kept under review as the disease
situation develops.
Turkey keepers should be vigilant and watch for any signs of disease but
the main message is not to panic. Hopefully the outbreak in Suffolk will
have been a one-off incident and Defra will eventually determine how the
disease was spread. In the meantime it is advisable to feed and water
your turkeys away from wild birds if possible and maintain a high level
of biosecurity. If you haven’t done so already it is a good idea to work
out how you would house your birds if required to do so. This does not
necessarily mean the turkeys have to be locked in a shed all the time
but be contained in a wire penned area, ideally away from wild birds and
housed at night. Any penned area should be covered so that wild birds
cannot defecate through the wire.
Up-to-date information about the HPAI outbreak in Suffolk can be found
at : www.defra.gov.uk.
NEWS ARCHIVE
20 DEC 06 :
METHODS AND EQUIPMENT FOR THE HUMANE SLAUGHTER OF POULTRY ON-FARM
21 NOV 06 :
NEW
ANIMAL TRANSPORT REGULATIONS IN 2007
21 JUL 06 :
PROTECT TURKEYS IN A HEATWAVE
10 APR 06 :
AVIAN INFLUENZA CONCERN AND THE CARE OF TURKEYS
06 APR 06 :
AVIAN INFLUENZA IN
SCOTLAND
10 FEB 06 :
GREAT BRITAIN
POULTRY REGISTER
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