Bird Flu Hits Britain

Sorry for the lull in posts, not much had been happening besides a Nigerian bird flu death... Then, BAM, all of a sudden H5N1 infiltrates Britain. It's, how would they put it?? mmm... rather unsettling and quite a bother. Here's Best Syndication with the latest update:


"British officials have reported that 159,000 birds were killed at one turkey farm in Suffolk. This began on late Saturday to stop the spread of the virus. At this time it appears that the virus is located at a turkey farm and has not shown up in any new locations.

The farm will undergo a complete disinfecting process were the birds were housed. The 320 farm workers were instructed to take the antiviral drug Tamiflu. These farmer workers have not complained of any illness. These workers may have handled the over 2,000 birds that became infected with the H5N1 virus.

A worker that has helped in the culling of the 159,000 turkeys is being tested after coming down with illness and complaints of congestion. The worker’s health complaint was reported as "mild respiratory illness." At this time they are testing for the H5N1 virus. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) doesn’t believe that this person is infected with the bird flu virus, because of all the precautions taken during the culling. The results will be known in the next day.

The UK has put into place restrictions to bird farmers in the surrounding vicinity to keep their livestock indoors. Other countries have banned the import of UK poultry for fear on spreading the H5N1 virus. Transport of poultry needs to have proper clearance in the UK.

Since the beginning of the H5N1 virus it has been estimated that 200 million birds worldwide have been culled in attempts to prevent the spread of the deadly infection."

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Ha! Looks like someone has been counting up the deaths-by-culling after all. I suspect that if H5N1 doesn't develop into a pandemic, within a year or so we'll start seeing books like "Did 200 Million Have to Die?" and "Cold Turkey: How the Culture of Fear Destroyed the World's Poultry Industry."

Anyway, looks like Suffolk's got some 'splainin to do! At least they don't have cholera...



Yet!