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Subject: BS: Influenza Britain From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 03 Feb 07 - 10:46 PM Killer Flu In Suffolk
Confirmed avian flu killed 2,600 turkeys at a Bernard Matthews farm in Suffolk.
The slaughter of nearly 160,000 turkeys has begun
The government said the flu was the "highly pathogenic" Asian strain.
The strain has killed 164 people worldwide.
The most likely source of the outbreak was wild birds. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: bobad Date: 03 Feb 07 - 10:53 PM Especially if you're a turkey. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: GUEST,Arnie Date: 04 Feb 07 - 12:18 AM Just as well this happened after Christmas - any earlier and I think Bernard Matthews would be looking to take up another profession! Is he still alive or is this another Colonel Kentucky-type company that still bears it's founders name long after he's gone to that great plucking shed in the sky. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 04 Feb 07 - 05:49 AM I wonder where exactly these turkeys were kept (indoors or out) if the source was wild birds. Presumably this was an outdoor farm. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Mingulay Date: 04 Feb 07 - 07:05 AM Apparently Bernard Matthews have issued a statement saying that the situation is "Norfolk 'n good". (Apologies to Mr S.Kipper/Mr. C.Sugden) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Scooby Doo Date: 04 Feb 07 - 07:59 AM The Turkeys are kept in 22 enclosed sheds and they have not found the source of the outbreak yet. Scooby |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Flash Company Date: 04 Feb 07 - 10:55 AM Defra was a bit slow off the mark in getting to the scene, next we get the 'Don't Panic' messages alongside the 'Pandemic' scares. As an old cynic, I can't help but think that the occupant of No 10 must be cackling with glee and thinking 'That's got Cash for Honours off the front page!' FC |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Rapparee Date: 04 Feb 07 - 01:41 PM Well, if they'd just do SOMETHING about all those wild birds this wouldn't happen! Couldn't they just test them all or something? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Michael Date: 04 Feb 07 - 04:34 PM Just kill all wild birds - everywhere - remove obvious vectors!! Easy really. Mike |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 04 Feb 07 - 04:38 PM Michael, don't let all the twitchers, who have flocked to Knaresborough this weekend to see the young black-throated diver, hear you say that! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Mo the caller Date: 04 Feb 07 - 08:19 PM Mike, if you don't want humans to catch flu from birds, yours is just one of the two possible solutions. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: The PA Date: 05 Feb 07 - 10:56 AM Cant really see Bernard Matthews and their sort letting a turkey see light of day. Makes you wonder how these turkeys are supposed to have caught it from wild birds! who they trying to fool. And I do wish they would stop referring to this as a farm, its a meat producing industrial unit. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 05 Feb 07 - 03:28 PM You've got a point there. I feel sorry for the turkeys - that number crammed into 22 sheds, however big the sheds are they won't be big enough. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Gizmo Date: 05 Feb 07 - 06:15 PM I don't agree with the culling of the birds for the following reason: If there is a case of the bird flu, what they should do is keep all of the possible carriers contained in a quaranteen area. All the survivng birds would have some sort of resistance to the flu, and therefore should be allowed to populate. The chances that at least 1 of the birds is resistant is high. However, if they do die, then they were going to anyway. The major problem with large scale culling, is that the animals with resistance to the disease do not get a chance to breed, thus we get generations of immunity weakend animals, including humans. Strains of viruses often change and adapt, and some can be dormant or thought to be extinct, then up comes a strain again. Culling leads to weaker animals in the long term and what good would that do? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: bubblyrat Date: 05 Feb 07 - 06:20 PM It would reduce the population. Nature has been doing it for thousands of years .What will be,will be.!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 06 Feb 07 - 03:53 AM Gizmo, I suppose they worry about people panicking and feel that they need an instant solution to this particular outbreak. It is what happened with BSE. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: mandotim Date: 06 Feb 07 - 04:06 AM I live near the incineration plant in Staffordshire, and there is the predictable uproar locally. The trucks roll through our village, mostly at night. The latest word is that two tankers full of cranberry sauce have been delivered as well... Tim PS Gordon Ramsey (inevitably) had a comment; 'The publicity wil mean all the f****ng idiots who know f**k all about food will stop buying turkey immediately. The price will drop like a stone, and that's good, 'cos I like turkey.' |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Big Al Whittle Date: 06 Feb 07 - 05:54 AM sod the turkeys - I've got a sore throat. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: The PA Date: 06 Feb 07 - 06:42 AM Its if you start sneezing you need to worry! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 06 Feb 07 - 06:44 AM help! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: ard mhacha Date: 06 Feb 07 - 06:53 AM With intensive agricultural methods do we have to look for an outside source, regarding the horrendous conditions these birds are reared under can anyone be surprised that disease is bound to be present. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Scrump Date: 06 Feb 07 - 10:03 AM All this talk of - COCK A DOODLE DO! - bird flu spreading to - SQUAWK! - humans is just media hysteria - CAW!! ATISHOO! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Splott Man Date: 06 Feb 07 - 11:48 AM 164 human victims worldwide in 5 years. Now that's what I call a pandemic! How many thousand people die in this country annually from ordinary everyday common or garden flu? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Scrump Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:39 AM Garden flu? Aaarrgh! If I'd known I'd never have gone out there for that cabbage! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: wlisk Date: 07 Feb 07 - 10:56 AM From 1918: I had a little bird it's name was Enza I opened up the window and influenza. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: GUEST,Shimrod Date: 07 Feb 07 - 04:39 PM When it comes to the 'crunch' the governments key priority will inevitably be the shareholders. You know, I think we're doomed! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Scrump Date: 07 Feb 07 - 05:40 PM Glad I'm not a shareholder in Bernard Matthews' "Norfolk & Good" Turkey Farms. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: GUEST,ozchick Date: 07 Feb 07 - 09:08 PM Splott Man.... It isn't a pandemic YET. The worrying thing about the avian flu is that it is a mutating virus. At the moment it's able to be passed from birds to humans. But the human who has it is not able to pass it to another human. Apparently there is one mutation left before it can be passed from human to human - and when that happens, we're all in big trouble. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: GUEST,JTT Date: 08 Feb 07 - 05:51 AM There's an interesting book called 1491, about the European takeover of America. It has a lot of fascinating stuff about why the American Indians fell like straw before the viruses brought by Europeans. The author dug up descriptions from the 15th century of beaches piled with bodies, and uses archeological evidence to say that the American Indians were not the hunter-gatherers of the 19th century at the time of the invasion, but were a huge population of city-dwellers, who fell to a gigantic pandemic, partly because their genetic structure was different enough to stop them fighting the infection. And the really scary thing? It was started by a guy called Bernard (?) de Soto, who brought five pigs in. Here's an article by him about the same subject. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 28 Feb 07 - 05:44 PM The body of an aristocrat buried in East Yorkshire is being exhumed. He died of Spanish flu in 1919 and they are hoping that this exhumation may help with a potential bird flu pandemic. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Influenza Britain From: Jean(eanjay) Date: 28 Feb 07 - 05:52 PM I saw this on the local TV news and this is the website if anybody is interested in reading more. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/28/nsykes128.xml |
