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2007-9-3 13:51:07 |
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Britain confirmed its first outbreak of highly pathogenic bird flu strain H5N1 in domestic poultry on Saturday at a farm run by Europe's biggest turkey producer, Reuters reported. The bird flu outbreak has killed about 2,500 turkeys since Thursday at the Bernard Matthews farm near Lowestoft in eastern England. But no human case was reported. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was cited as saying that all 159,000 turkeys on the farm would have to be slaughtered to prevent spreading of the disease. The British government set up a protection zone with a radius of 3 kilometers and surveillance zone of 7 kilometers around the affected farm to prevent the spreading of the H5N1 virus, the EU Commission was cited as saying. Police already blocked access to the sheds housing the turkeys at the infected farm. In the protection zone, poultry movement except shipment to the slaughterhouse has been banned. A similar outbreak occurred at a farm in eastern France a year ago, killing hundreds of turkeys. The outbreak was contained and no cases of H5N1 were reported in European poultry until last month when the virus killed thousands of geese on a farm in Hungary. In May, another outbreak of bird flu H7N3 led to culling of 50,000 chickens at three farms in Norfolk. Bird flu affects primarily birds. So far, the H5N1 virus has caused deaths or destruction of more than 200 million of domestic poultry. Migrating wildfowl is believed to be the main vehicle for the transmission of bird flu among birds. Human bird flu cases are rare. But the highly virulent H5N1 virus has infected at least more than 260 people, killing more than 164 in ten countries worldwide since 2003 when the virus reappeared in Asia. Government officials and scientists have been worried that the persistent worldwide outbreaks of H5N1 may lead to a mutation in the virus making it more infectious yet less lethal. As a result, it may infect millions of people and kill hundreds of thousands worldwide. The bird flu outbreak in Britain was surprising as the virus was not expected to be so active at this time of year. High activity of the virus should be in spring when migrating birds are expected to spread the disease, according to bird flu expert Colin Butter of the Institute of Animal Health. "The next thing we need to know is if this is a primary or secondary case. If this is a secondary case, it is much more serious. If this is the first case, or 'reference case', and we can stamp it out, the outbreak will be controlled," Butter was quoted by Reuters as saying. The Britain's poultry industry reminds consumers that eating poultry is not a risk for the bird flu. The World Health Organization said early that eating well cooked poultry meat is not a way to get infected. But handling sick birds is considered the major route for human infection. |
