Scots Poultry Farm Sealed Off By Govt

This doesn't sound good at all. Let's hope it turns out to be just a scare and not what we assume.

BIRD FLU TIMEBOMB: NIGHTMARE

Scientists slap this chilling notice on Scots farm as bird flu spreads It's a red alert and I understand why they've done this POULTRY FARMER TOM HOWIE

By Billy Paterson

A SCOTS poultry farm has been sealed off by Government scientists and tested for deadly bird flu, the Mail can reveal.

In a chilling echo of the 2001 foot and mouth crisis, "keep- out" notices were posted on gates which will remain closed until a final all-clear.

Castleton Farm, near Stewarton, Ayrshire, has been cordoned off by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Their officials acted after some of the 40,000 hens fell ill.

more

Can anyone from the UK verify this news source? I'm not familiar with Sundaymail.co.uk

Edit to add additional news source:

scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com...
Sun 16 Oct 2005
Bird flu victims face forced quarantine

RICHARD GRAY AND JEREMY WATSON
HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

DRACONIAN measures to forcibly examine and quarantine human victims of the deadly bird flu strain spreading across the world have been introduced by the government as scientists confirmed yesterday the virus had now appeared in mainland Europe.

Laboratory tests carried out in Britain have identified the virus that has killed wild birds in Romania's Danube delta as the H5N1 strain that has devastated flocks in Asia, killing more than 60 people.

All vehicles entering and leaving the infected Romanian region are now to be disinfected and checkpoints have been set up on roads entering the area. Exports of eggs and poultry were banned.

Edit to fix 2nd link

[edit on 15-10-2005 by SourGrapes]

I don't know if it is just me but I can't get the second link to open. It is quite a find though and I will be looking forward to our UK members take on this also. I would also love to see other links following this as the news progresses.

Originally posted by justme1640
I don't know if it is just me

but I can't get the second link to open. It is quite a find though and I will be looking forward to our UK members take on this also. I would also love to see other links following this as the news progresses.

Sorry 'bout that. Should work now.

It's working now -- thanks -- that was a good find. I think it is good that they have a plan to put into action but I sure hope it never comes to using it. One reason I think it is good that they have a plan -- how many times have you gone to work, or to a shop, or a movie or anything and there is someone very obviously sick next to you. I don't understand why so many people take pride in coning to work etc. when they are sick. That whole "Well I never miss a day" mentality is beyond me. All they do is infect everyone else.

Not heard a peep on the BBC so far about this.........

Not too worried really at the moment. At this time, it is a bird disease that does not appear to readily transmit from Human to Human. I am not a chicken farmer, so my risk is extremely low.

On that note, however, I am concerned about the sheer amount of pigeons that we have in UK towns and cities. I am wondering if those creatures will enable the spread of bird flu to the human population...

Originally posted by justme1640
It's working now -- thanks -- that was a good find. I think it is good that they have a plan to put into action but I sure hope it never comes to using it. One reason I think it is good that they have a plan -- how many times have you gone to work, or to a shop, or a movie or anything and there is someone very obviously sick next to you. I don't understand why so many people take pride in coning to work etc. when they are sick. That whole "Well I never miss a day" mentality is beyond me. All they do is infect everyone else.

I agree. I admit to doing the same. In the past, I would often feel that if I weren't there to 'get the job done', then someone else would do it. That 'someone else' may screw things up, or cause additional work for myself. What if upper management thought of me as weak for not coming in?

We've been programmed with a 'He Man' mentality and we need to ban together to thwart it. We need to make noise and show our discontent when a fellow worker (or student, etc) comes around when in the early stages of a virus. They are not 'he men', they are selfish! And they need to be reminded of this.

Originally posted by stumason
Not heard a peep on the BBC so far about this.........

Not too worried really at the moment. At this time, it is a bird disease that does not appear to readily transmit from Human to Human. I am not a chicken farmer, so my risk is extremely low.

On that note, however, I am concerned about the sheer amount of pigeons that we have in UK towns and cities. I am wondering if those creatures will enable the spread of bird flu to the human population...

Pigeons you say?

news.bbc.co.uk...

Nine Isolated In Bird Flu Fears
Nine people are under medical observation in Turkey after reports of 40 pigeons in their neighbourhood died in mysterious circumstances.

May have already gone h2h:

www.thesun.co.uk...

Girl 'gave mum bird flu'
By NICK PARKER
and SIMON HUGHES

A MUM killed by dreaded bird flu was last night feared to be the first person to have caught it from another human.
The woman Pranee, in her twenties, was infected as she nursed her dying 11-year-old daughter Sakuntala, in hospital, medics believe.

Take it for what it's worth, which isn't much coming from the 'Sun' but I guess we'll see.




[edit on 16-10-2005 by SourGrapes]

I think the correct reaction would be...


Oh bollocks and buggerations.......

a stupid question here, not entirely related but....
well....
I heard that they are testing a vaccine on human subjects in the US...
seems to me, that every year, when they begin giving out the flu vaccines, that's when the flu outbreaks occurs. If they test a vaccine for the birdflu on human, won't that just quicken the mutations necessary for it to spread person to person, and well, possibly make the subjects capable of spreading the disease themselves...creating the pandemic in other words?

why don't we just kill all the birds, that should solve the problem....

Originally posted by dawnstar
a stupid question here, not entirely related but....
well....
I heard that they are testing a vaccine on human subjects in the US...
seems to me, that every year, when they begin giving out the flu vaccines, that's when the flu outbreaks occurs.

Actually, you are right. Sort of.

We have different strains of the flu each year. We cannot make a vaccine until that particular strain shows itself. The reason you see flu shots available around the same time as flu breaks out is because it's basically 'scientists versus mother nature against the clock'.

Once a new flu strain is identified, a vaccine is made and shipped worldwide. We are being injected with a 'dead' strain of this year's virus, so our immune system can work its miracles. Once our immune system adapts to the injected dead virus, we are then 'immune' to that particular strain of flu.

If they test a vaccine for the birdflu on human, won't that just quicken the mutations necessary for it to spread person to person, and well, possibly make the subjects capable of spreading the disease themselves...creating the pandemic in other words?

This is actually a good question. I'm not in the medical industry. I have my opinion of this, but I believe someone like FredT would know better than I.

why don't we just kill all the birds, that should solve the problem....

lol, sounds logical doesn't it? Actually, I believe this way of thinking is how we've gotten ourselves into these horrible catastrophes as it is. Humans mess with mother nature, mother nature comes back to bite us in the arse.

[edit on 16-10-2005 by SourGrapes]

I found another link on this thread from the Scotsman com website

news.scotsman.com...

Two points:

ONE.

Pidgeons could potentially be the most dangerous vector for the disease considering their sheer number and the fact that they are generally regaurded as disease carriers.

TWO.

The farming techniques used to raise birds might cause a severe accelleration in the spread of avian flu. In the wild birds probably have some territorialism and live apart or in small groups. Not so in industrial farming, where you have cages upon cages of birds. With birds in that close proximity, a disease could spread like a wildfire.

I sure hope this is just a precautionary measure and that all checks out well for this farm. This is all very alarming stuff.

Last I heard on the news, this was not Bird Flu related, but related to some other disease. Forgot the name of it, but they stated that it was not Bird Flu.

The problem here is that, honestly, I think that when they detect it at point A, it has already moved to point B. That's just common sence.

[edit on 16-10-2005 by Toxic Fox]

I have done some research, but have found nothing to back this up other than the link you supplied.

It also emerged a Scots poultry farm was sealed off after some hens fell ill with a suspected bird virus. Castleton Farm, near Stewarton, Ayrshire, was cordoned off as tests for Newcastle disease and Avian flu were carried out but it was reopened yesterday after they came back negative.

The above quote from your link (4th paragraph down) says that it was just precautionary and that things are fine now.