A turkey rearing unit [owned by Bernard Matthews] has been affected by the
H5 strain of Avian Influenza
Tests are being done to determine which strain

About 30% of young birds have died in one shed on the farm.
Birds in other sheds on the same unit are visibly healthy but may well be
culled as a containment measure

The farm is at Holton in Suffolk, an area of the UK which has a high
concentration of poultry units.

Bernard Matthews operate high biosecurity measures on all their farms but
there will obviously be heightened awareness all around the area until the
strain and cause of the incident is found

The pattern of deaths [71 on Tuesday, 186 on Wednesday, 860 on Thursday,
1500 on Friday - out of a shed containing over 7,000 young birds] may be
reassuring as turkeys are particularly vulnerable to any infectious virus
and one would expect all to have died very quickly if it was a highly
pathogenic strain.

There are reportedly more than 160,000 on the whole farm.

So far reports suggest that the young birds were not imported

Many thousands of wild birds have been tested across the EU this winter to
try and locate any H5N1 which might be hidden in the migratory waterfowl.

--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk

BBC 24 reporting that its confirmed H5N1
Full cull in progress
Not a good day

--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotlandhttp://www.kintaline.co.uk

"Jill" <n...@NOSPAMkintaline.co.uk> wrote in message

news:45c457af$0$8748$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net...



A turkey rearing unit [owned by Bernard Matthews] has been affected by the
H5 strain of Avian Influenza
Tests are being done to determine which strain

About 30% of young birds have died in one shed on the farm.
Birds in other sheds on the same unit are visibly healthy but may well be
culled as a containment measure

The farm is at Holton in Suffolk, an area of the UK which has a high
concentration of poultry units.

Bernard Matthews operate high biosecurity measures on all their farms but
there will obviously be heightened awareness all around the area until the
strain and cause of the incident is found

The pattern of deaths [71 on Tuesday, 186 on Wednesday, 860 on Thursday,
1500 on Friday - out of a shed containing over 7,000 young birds] may be
reassuring as turkeys are particularly vulnerable to any infectious virus
and one would expect all to have died very quickly if it was a highly
pathogenic strain.

There are reportedly more than 160,000 on the whole farm.

So far reports suggest that the young birds were not imported

Many thousands of wild birds have been tested across the EU this winter to
try and locate any H5N1 which might be hidden in the migratory waterfowl.
Bad news indeed.

--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment, Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Bad news indeed.
Will be interesting to see if they can work out the original vector
for this - not really classic migration time, but I suppose the
unusually clement weather in Dec & Jan (in terms of temperature at
least) could have lead to a delayed migration from the mainland - or
we could have wind-diverted birds coming over.