H5N1 2007 - 160,000 Turkeys exterminated in Suffolk England
 

Here we go again... first major outbreak and first major outbreak reported this year. Bernard Matthews, the cooked turkey king, has seen one of his gigantic farms fall foul (sorry!) of the feared strain of avian flu.

1500 turkeys died of the H5N1 virus, resulting in an 8-mile cordon around the farm and 160,000 turkeys culled to contain the outbreak.

No one yet knows how it infiltrated with options ranging from contaminated feaces from wild fowl carried in on the fet of workers, to contaminated turkey food.

Still no evidence of cross-mutation which would bring the virus into the apocalyptic scenario of human contagion.

Where next we wonder....

Wonder what they'll do when it's found in some large city's pigeons? :unsure:

Well, first they'll panic immediately and shut down the area.

A friend of mine's mother lives in a remodeled business loft downtown, and she was told by an EMT that she lived in the "hot zone" and if she didn't come immediately with them to the hospital to be quarantined and tested, she would be arrested. No joke.

That would prove very interesting in NYC.:haha:

Is Turner Broadcasting going to reimburse........oh, sorry.

Not exactly the news to make one feel proud to be British!

Latest info on the H5N1 outbreak in Suffolk.

Despite assertions from the company concerned, Bernard Matthews Farms, that all its turkeys were home-grown and no meat was imported from Hungary, it now transpires that it does actually import 40 tons per week of partly processed turkey meat from an abbatoir in Hungary that is 30 miles from a farm where there has been a recent outbreak of HN51 in geese (the abbatoir handles both turkeys and geese).

Furthermore the strain of HN51 found at the Suffolk farm is identical to the virus found in the infected geese in Hungary.

It doesn't end there. Fearing a ban on British meats by European countries, the Government body reponsible for managing the outbreak, DEFRA, permitted a further import from the same abbatoir in Hungary to proceed this week, in full knowledge of the Hungarian outbreak.

There's more. The shipment has been allowed inside the plant despite a cordon and procedures introduced precisely to prevent such a risk, and, worse still, the imported eat may have already been processed into finished products and be on supermarket shelves.

There is also the concern that discarded cuts from this source may have not been properly disposed of, and therefore have been available to wildlife such as foxes and rats.

Another lovely mess - but that's what you get when you leave it to incapable government bodies to handle such situations...

The one bright spot in this whole story is that Bernie Matthews was a local tv weatherman with a spectacularly bad hair piece.

Our Bernie never sported a syrup, but he may wish for some form of disguise in the wake of this debacle.