Bird flu in UK...

Wertz

Confirmed deadly h5n1 strain of avian flu on a turkey farm in suffolk.
2500 birds already dead and 100K+ due for immeadiate slaughter.

This really caught my attention this morning since I woke in the middle of the night with a thumping headache, sore and tired limbs and a very chesty cough....sittting here sipping dispirins with the heating on full blast, shivering and coughing my lungs up.....must be a bad human strain going about too.

Anyways, on topic, very worrying development to see this in the human food chain potentially and given the time of year (when birds start returning to their summer breeding grounds all over europe), the potential for spread is pretty high.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/suffolk/6327193.stm

The_B_Man

Bugger!

They're also gona lose loadsa money, but, i have the perfect solution.

With all the hunting shenanigans goin on over there, they could charge people to go in and hunt the chickens! It'd be gas! Imagine gettin hold of a machine gun and lettin loose on 159,000 chickens! And, it'd all be for public safety too!

Silverfish

It would be CS_Italy all over again! Awesome!

Need chikens!

Steyr

This is no threat, its media hype.

InFront

Great news for Irish cattle farmers apparently:)

Terry

Steyr wrote:

This is no threat, its media hype.

agreed.
while i don't doubt that there has been a case of bird flu reported in england, the whole thing about a recurrence of the Spanish flu is nonsense.

PETA must be wondering what to do about this one.
kill a few thousand birds and save the human race or leave the birds alone, let nature take its course and potentially wipe out millions of people. what to do?

mike65

PETA say kill the humans!

Mike.

Stark

Yay, I can't wait for the hype over this...

super_furry

Bird flu is sooooo last year. Now it's all about herpes, although foot and mouth disease may be due for an 'ironic' retro comeback.

WhiteWashMan

Steyr wrote:

This is no threat, its media hype.

sorry, what is media hype?

Pighead

WhiteWashMan wrote:

sorry, what is media hype?

Pighead doesn't wish to be quoted on this but I'm pretty sure its when rationalism, objectivity and scientific inquiry get thrown completely out of the picture in favour of exaggeration and misinformation. Usually with the objective of selling more copy.

chump

Pighead wrote:

Pighead doesn't wish to be quoted on this but I'm pretty sure its when rationalism, objectivity and scientific inquiry get thrown completely out of the picture in favour of exaggeration and misinformation. Usually with the objective of selling more copy.

I don't think this is the case.

We're all doomed IMO.


I'm gonna lock my burd up in the kitchen as soon as this sh!t hits ourland. She wont be getting out until Bertie gives the all clear.

Pighead

chump wrote:

I don't think this is the case.

We're all doomed IMO.


I'm gonna lock my burd up in the kitchen as soon as this sh!t hits ourland. She wont be getting out until Bertie gives the all clear.

For fcuks sake chump, I clearly said not to quote me. Are you trying to rattle Pigheads cage?

Nehpets

Pighead wrote:

Pighead doesn't wish to be quoted on this but I'm pretty sure its when rationalism, objectivity and scientific inquiry get thrown completely out of the picture in favour of exaggeration and misinformation. Usually with the objective of selling more copy.

something like that

seamus

For bird flu to both take root in a human and become heavily contagious between humans would take bad luck of astronomical proportions.

In fact if such an event were to occur, I would personally consider it so unlikely, that it was in fact logically "meant" to happen, and there's no sense in freaking out about it.

With the amount of people walking around with colds at the moment, it's only a matter of time before someone with a standard sniffing cold catches H51N and begins spreading it to all their friends.

Then a lot of people will die. But not most of us by a long shot.

admiralofthefleet

there is bird flu in my house once every month.....

WhiteWashMan

Pighead wrote:

Pighead doesn't wish to be quoted on this but I'm pretty sure its when rationalism, objectivity and scientific inquiry get thrown completely out of the picture in favour of exaggeration and misinformation. Usually with the objective of selling more copy.

sorry pighead, my bad.

i understand what media hype is.

my question, which could have been better phrased, was to find out what part of avian bird flu is media hype.

i ask for two reasons.

1, becuase im not sure i know what the media hype is

and

2, why did the poster think it was hype.

i dont claim to be an expert in a pandemic virus, but from what i know, there is a risk, however small. and if it becomes mutated and does become communicable between humans, then there is a real risk.

The_B_Man

the media hype hes referring to is that ppl have stated that theres little or no chance of this spreading to humans, and little or no chance of it gettin to ireland. however, he's saying that the media are saying its very serious, which it is, but isnt.....but may be, if numerous factors are taken into account, and numerous other possibilities come true. simple!

r3nu4l

/r3nu4l considers the wisdom of having completed a house purchase in Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk two months ago today...cough, cough, hacking chest, and runny eyes :eek:

Well the police exclusion zone was set up incredibly quickly, the emergency planners met in Bury (ironically enough!) on Saturday and the cull is expected to be completed today. An epidemiologist on BBC4 this morning reckons that the UK will have another outbreak over the next three months, hopefully not anywhere near Bury this time, I don't need those house prices tumbling

Terry

WhiteWashMan wrote:

i understand what media hype is.

my question, which could have been better phrased, was to find out what part of avian bird flu is media hype.

i ask for two reasons.

1, becuase im not sure i know what the media hype is

and

2, why did the poster think it was hype.

i dont claim to be an expert in a pandemic virus, but from what i know, there is a risk, however small. and if it becomes mutated and does become communicable between humans, then there is a real risk.

1. I don't even have to turn the tv on to tell you that sky news have a reporter close to where the incident occured. I guarantee that the sun (the lasgest selling newspaper in the uk and Ireland) have it plastered all over the front page and that every halfwit is now convinced that the end is nigh because of this. shock tactics sell.

2. As you stated yourself, the risk is very small.

Heyes

According to the radio this morning, the case of bird flu was actually found on a farm belonging to Bernard Mathews, a major chicken / turkey supplier of ready meals and meat to ireland and england.

The same company got slated by Jamie Oliver last year for saying there ready meals did not really contain a lot of meat, and also for an incident where two employees were filmed harming a turkey basically kicking it around, this video was placed on the internet and they were in turn fired.

Nice place...

r3nu4l

Yep, it was a Bernard Matthews farm, one of many in England. I actually stopped buying Bernard Matthews poultry after the 'turkey football' incident :mad:

Wertz

Pretty old news about it being a Bernard Matthew's farm....but something I saw yesterday made for interesting reading....there are also BM turkey farms in Hungary where there was a h5n1 outbreak a little while back on another spearate poultry farm. The company are denying that there could be any link and that live movements of stock never happened between the two locations, but epidemiologists have suggested that truck tyres, packing crates or cages that were poorly disinfected could be responsible for the spread to the UK.
If it's happened once, chances are it's happened more than once...

Heyes

Wertz wrote:

Pretty old news about it being a Bernard Matthew's farm....but something I saw yesterday made for interesting reading....it was also a BM farm in Hungary that had a h5n1 outbreak a little while back. The company are denying that there could be any link and that live movements of stock never happened between the two locations, but epidemiologists have suggested that truck tyres, packing crates or cages that were poorly disinfected could be responsible for the spread to the UK.
If it's happened once, chances are it's happened more than once...

It would make sense if that was the case, clearly everything that is in contact of the bird flew virus or the farms involved need to be assessed in greater detail until more information is found on the virus as a whole.

Wertz

I've been looking for a link to back up the "BM owning the two farms"-thing and I'm a bit inaccurate....supposedly the goose farm in Hungary has the same asian strain that cropped up in suffolk.....and Bernard Matthews operate a number of turkey farms in the region, which have NOT been infected...so whatever I read yesterday was speculative at best. I'll edit my other post.

[edit]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/birdflu/story/0,,2006082,00.html

Some specuation about imported eggs in that Guardian article and a possible connection...

Binomate

Everybody Run For Your Lives! We're All Going To Die!

Wertz

Hmmm, no link for it yet but just heard on a BBC radio news bulletin that one of the workers on the farm (possibly a vet) has been admitted to hospital with "worrying symptoms"...

LundiMardi

Wertz wrote:

Hmmm, no link for it yet but just heard on a BBC radio news bulletin that one of the workers on the farm (possibly a vet) has been admitted to hospital with "worrying symptoms"...

She has AIDS, AIDS AIDS AIDS!!

InFront

Originally posted by r3nu4l
I actually stopped buying Bernard Matthews poultry after the 'turkey football' incident

I was disappointed they didn't make it to the world cup too, but there's no need to go blaming innocent people for it.

Bada-ching

The Gnome

Wertz wrote:

Hmmm, no link for it yet but just heard on a BBC radio news bulletin that one of the workers on the farm (possibly a vet) has been admitted to hospital with "worrying symptoms"...

Here.

The Simpsons wrote:

Kent Brockman: Do feel that the time has come for our viewers to crack open the skulls of their neighbours and feast on the goo inside?

Expert being consulted: Yes Kent, yes I do.

InFront

Well that does say that it is highly unlikely that he's got the disease.

The same thing used to happen with foot and Mouth Disease back in 2001, people would suddenly notice lesions and the press would catch hold of it and report it when it was inevitably nothing.

Wertz

"I say we dust off and nuke the whole site from orbit...it's the only way to be sure..."

Lt Ellen Ripley

Heyes

Wertz wrote:

Hmmm, no link for it yet but just heard on a BBC radio news bulletin that one of the workers on the farm (possibly a vet) has been admitted to hospital with "worrying symptoms"...

He 's been given the all clear.He had been taken in due to breathing difficulties.

r3nu4l

InFront wrote:

I was disappointed they didn't make it to the world cup too, but there's no need to go blaming innocent people for it.

Bada-ching

Ba-dum-tish...but seriously folks has anyone ever wondered how they get the figs into the fig rolls? My mother-in-law is so...:D

Yep, the vet was given the all clear so it looks like he won't become a zombie infected with Rage...guess we won't know for sure until 28 days later

Terry

Medical tests on a vet who fell ill after visiting the Suffolk farm hit by a deadly strain of bird flu have shown he is not suffering from the H5N1 strain.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1250479,00.html

Farms are quite dusty.

WhiteWashMan

julep wrote:

1. I don't even have to turn the tv on to tell you that sky news have a reporter close to where the incident occured. I guarantee that the sun (the lasgest selling newspaper in the uk and Ireland) have it plastered all over the front page and that every halfwit is now convinced that the end is nigh because of this. shock tactics sell.
.

i believe that people are free to make up their own mind. if peple believe the end of the world is nigh, then so be it. mind you, the UK govevernement spent an awful lot of money in 06 buying up antidotes in case there was an outbreak. maybe they form their opinions from the Sun headlines?

julep wrote:

2. As you stated yourself, the risk is very small.

oh, the risk is small for the strain to mutate in to a human flu, but the risk is still there.
the possiblility is small, but the consequesnces could be huge. personally, i prefer to err on the side of caution.
whatever the media say, i tend to read the facts and dismiss the opinion. it seems the opinion is what too many people read, and then get annoyed about media hype.

Terry

WhiteWashMan wrote:

i believe that people are free to make up their own mind. if peple believe the end of the world is nigh, then so be it. mind you, the UK govevernement spent an awful lot of money in 06 buying up antidotes in case there was an outbreak. maybe they form their opinions from the Sun headlines?

Antidotes for humans or birds?
Yes, people are free to make up their own minds. I'm not disputing that at all. It's the hype about this becoming the next Spanish flu that I disagree with.

WhiteWashMan wrote:

oh, the risk is small for the strain to mutate in to a human flu, but the risk is still there.
the possiblility is small, but the consequesnces could be huge. personally, i prefer to err on the side of caution.

I, like most of the people here, grew up in a world on the brink of a nuclear war that never happened. Excuse me if I find this hullabaloo tiring. A few years back every Irish household was issued with iodine tablets in case there was a nuclear war/ nuclear related accident. I'm still waiting for that to happen.

WhiteWashMan wrote:

whatever the media say, i tend to read the facts and dismiss the opinion. it seems the opinion is what too many people read, and then get annoyed about media hype.

I completely agree with you here. The thing is, I'm not seeing many facts. All I'm seeing is scare tactics with a little sprinkling of 'this might happen if...'.
That's just me though. I'm very cynical when it comes to things like this.
I'll probably be the first Irish casualty.

WhiteWashMan

julep wrote:

Antidotes for humans or birds?

humans

julep wrote:

It's the hype about this becoming the next Spanish flu that I disagree with.

youre right. it could be a lot worse. i think you should do some research into it.

julep wrote:

I'll probably be the first Irish casualty.

i hope not.