Bird Flu :: Culling continues in UK to contain bird flu

British authorities, trying to contain an outbreak of avian flu of the lethal H5N1 strain on a turkey farm, have gassed tens of thousands of birds and will continue with the culling.

Health experts have quelled fears that the virus could be passed on to humans and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said the government was taking the possibility of a human flu pandemic in Britain “very seriously”.

Government veterinarians said 50,000 turkeys have been gassed so far at the Bernard Matthews site at Suffolk as efforts continued to prevent the spread of a mass outbreak of bird flu, the BBC reported.

A further 100,000 birds would be killed today. Sealed truckloads of carcasses were being taken 200 miles to be destroyed, officials said.

The culling operation started yesterday and is expected to be completed by today, the BBC quoted officials as saying. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the Bernard Matthews company will be entitled to compensation for the slaughtered birds.

Investigations are continuing into how the disease, identified as the “highly pathogenic” Asian strain of the H5N1 bird flu virus, entered the poultry flock, it said. Experts have suggested it might have been spread by wild birds.

The first turkeys died at the site on Tuesday and government vets were called in on Thursday after a vet for the Bernard Matthews company concluded the disease was “unidentifiable”. However, authorities denied their response was slow.

A biosecurity zone has been set up around the farm and poultry owners in the restricted area have been told to keep their flocks isolated from wild birds. PTI


Leave a Comment