NEWS: Bird Flu Hits the UK

A swan has died, in Fife, Scotland in the UK. It has been confirmed as the H5 strain, though whether it is the deadly H5N1 remains to be seen. A 10KM exclusion zone has been set around the farm by the Scottish executive.



Whilst this comes as no suprise to the UK authorities, questions remain over whether the government should have acted more quickly to bring all birds inside. This would have a great economic impact obviously put have the government put the UK public at risk. This is a worrying development but at the moment it appears to be an isolated incident. The government urges the public to remain calm and to continue eating chicken.

Related News Links:
www.sky.com

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This has been pinpointed to a place ten miles south of St Andrews called Cellardyke, Fife.
Futher results of the tests are expected tomorrow, 06/04/06. It is expected to be confirmed as H5N1, the deadliest strain of the virus.
It has been stated that no major poultry farms are located nearby, and indeed within the 10 KM exclusion zone.

Dan

worrying, very worrying :S

But lets try not to panic on this

All we know so far is that one swan has died, of H5 strain, we are waiting on further tests to confirm if its the deadly H5N1 strain...


I am not panicking but my mum is sworn off chicken... the panic begins.

Dan

im waiting to hear of the death squads going bird hunting when the Sun and Mirror tomorrow print the headlines

WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!

(note:both papers tend to scare their readers)

[edit on 5-4-2006 by infinite]

Great and who should live 1 mile away from fife? Me! Fantastic well looks like I wont be buying chicken for a while.

Cooked chicken is perfectly safe. I do hope that people here don't panic but i suppose i am asking a lot from the british public. You only have to say the words bomb, riot, disease, danger or somethign close to those and they panic.

To be honest i was expecting bird flu to get here ever since it hit europe, it just seemed likely to happen. I will refrain from getting scared though. If H5N1 does spread around the country then i will have to keep the cat in as it kills a lot of birds. This is the scariest thing for me, it hates being kept in, i'll be scratched to pieces before bird flu gets me lol.

gosh this is not good at all, But i guess we kinda knew it would get here someday.

Preliminary tests have confirmed a case of the H5 strain of the virus, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said in a statement.

More tests for the deadly H5N1 strain are under way and the results should be announced on Thursday.

"We are already in a high state of readiness," Chief Veterinary Officer Debby Reynolds said in a statement.

She has cancelled a national bird flu exercise which began this week to test the country's response to any outbreak.

"I brought to an end the national avian influenza exercise to ensure that we can bring all our resources to bear on this situation."

Officials have set up a 3 km (1.8 mile) protection zone around where the swan was found in Fife, eastern Scotland.

Reuters

[edit on 5-4-2006 by DJDOHBOY]

The test for the deadly strain are being carried out now, put your TV on skynews (if you recieve it) cause i have a feeling we may know the outcome by the end of tonight.

This will cause a mass boycott of poultry in the shops over here i bet

This will cause a mass boycott of poultry in the shops over here i bet

lets just remind ourselfs though, That bird flu cannot be caught by eating a cooked chicken,

Originally posted by asala
lets just remind ourselfs though, That bird flu cannot be caught by eating a cooked chicken,

True, but we have to remember that certain people will panic over this and get very scared.

Scary thought...

even though we knew it would hit the UK. Well it causes problems who cannot cook chicken.

People just be careful.

Oni x x

No need to panic. You will all be ok.

I suppose we're next in line.

Not panicking, but I am worried. I know we have a great many UK members. And we wait with baited breath for the test results.

Stay away from wild birds and be safe, all! Good luck. And at this point, it's only a matter of time before it hits the US. So I guess we'll see.

--Kit.

Originally posted by Kitsunegari
Not panicking, but I am worried. I know we have a great many UK members. And we wait with baited breath for the test results.

Stay away from wild birds and be safe, all! Good luck. And at this point, it's only a matter of time before it hits the US. So I guess we'll see.

--Kit.

Dont worry, you'll be fine...probably something they caught out of largo bay or one of the smaller boats going into thier harbour.....although it is a bit strange...

I would assume that most of you who live in the UK are also aware of your governments contingency plans vs. H5N1 pandemic?






seekerof

Of course, but what else to do with the bodies? Good to know there is a plan to dispose of them to minimise further contamination, and not something that simply involves a few people gathering in a bunker somewhere and nothing else.

Yep i have seen the plans. Mass graves are sadly all that can be done for this kind of thing. If you take a look at the foot and mouth incident then you will see that incineration is difficult at best. Even if all the cremators (is that the right word i'm drawing a bit of a mental blank) ran full blast then they couldn't get through that amount of people quickly enough.

It is a terrible thing to have to consider but again there is no real alternative. At the moment it's kind of an idol thought though.

Originally posted by Seekerof
I would assume that most of you who live in the UK are also aware of your governments contingency plans vs. H5N1 pandemic?

am i aware of the plan,
but to me, the plan is a "lack of"