At least 10,000 turkeys to be slaughtered as bird flu confirmed on UK farm in North Yorkshire

More than 10,000 turkeys will be culled at a site in North Yorkshire following an outbreak of bird flu.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has announced the cull on Sunday adding that it should not have an impact on supplies of turkey over Christmas.

The discovery of the H5N8 strain of the avian flu was made at a turkey fattening site near Northallerton was made on Saturday.

Defra released a statement confirming the news.

It reads: “Avian influenza of the H5N8 strain was confirmed at a turkey fattening premises near Northallerton on Saturday November 28.

“All 10,500 birds at the farm will be humanely culled to limit the spread of the disease.

“A 3km and 10km temporary control zone has been put in place around the infected site to limit the risk of the disease spreading.”

The statement added there is not anticipated to be any impact on the supplies of turkeys or other birds over Christmas.

The news comes after around 13,500 birds were culled earlier this month after an avian flu outbreak was confirmed at a commercial farm in Helsby, near Frodsham in Cheshire.

Public Health England and local health protection teams, who were involved, said the human risk of infection is very low for the general population, and low for those immediate contacts on site.

A Food Standards Agency spokesperson said: “Properly cooked poultry and poultry products, including eggs, remain safe to eat.”

Clinical signs that poultry keepers should look for in their birds include a swollen head, discolouration of neck and throat, loss of appetite, respiratory distress, diarrhoea and fewer eggs laid – although clinical signs vary between species of bird.

H5N8 avian influenza is currently circulating in wild birds and poultry in Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East, causing clinical signs in affected birds.

This led to the risk level being raised to medium for the incursion into the UK through the movement of wild birds.

These viruses are in no way connected to the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus which is not carried in poultry.

Courtesy of mirror.co.uk

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34,160 turkeys dead due to Bird Flu in South Carolina, USA #BirdFlu #Turkeys #SouthCarolina #USA

The first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza to occur in the United States since 2017 affected a flock of 34,160 commercial turkeys in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, according to a World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) report.

The case, reported earlier by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Courtesy of wattagnet.com

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50,000 turkeys to be killed due to Bird Flu in Hungary #BirdFlu #Hungary

The H5N8 strain of bird flu has been found at a large turkey farm in northwestern Hungary, the National Food Chain Safety Authority (NEBIH) said on Monday.

Slovakia, Hungary’s northern European Union neighbour, reported its first outbreak of the same highly pathogenic strain of the virus in nearly three years in backyard poultry in the western part of the country on Friday.

Hungary’s NEBIH said the full turkey stock at the farm, more than 50,000 birds, would have to be culled and other precautionary measures implemented to contain the spread of the infection. It said the farm would receive state compensation.

Courtesy of reuters.com

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25,000 turkeys dead due to avian flu in Eastern Poland #BirdFlu #AvianFlu #chickens #poland #H5N8

Up to 40,000 poultry are due to be slaughtered after bird flu was found responsible for the deaths of at least 25,000 turkeys in eastern Poland, according to local media and authorities.

Thursday’s mass slaughter of birds comes in the Lubartow area, an important poultry farming region, Polish veterinary authorities said.

It was not clear how the bird flu virus found its way to the farms.

Poland is Europe’s largest poultry producer, according to data from Eurostat, and last had an outbreak of bird flu in 2017.

Andrzej Danielak, president of the Polish Association of Breeders and Poultry Producers, said three farms might be affected, with up to 350,000 birds at risk in a three-kilometre (1.9-mile) radius.

“Veterinary services are implementing virus eradication procedures in this situation,” local authorities in Lubartow county said in a press release issued on Tuesday, adding that the virus was a subtype of the highly pathogenic H5N8 bird flu that can also threaten people.

The H5N8 strain has not yet infected any humans anywhere in the world to date, according to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service.

The authorities said crisis meetings had been held, while footage from private broadcaster Polsat showed police cars blocking a road in the area.

Poland produces about 17 percent of the European Union’s poultry, and exported more than a million tonnes of bird meat in the first half of 2019 – mostly to Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and France, according to the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality.

Courtesy of aljazeera.com

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800,000+ birds killed due to bird flu in Central and Northern Italy

Italy has had five outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N8 avian flu in farms the central and northern parts of the country since the start of the month and about 880,000 chickens, ducks and turkeys will be culled, officials said on Wednesday.

 

The biggest outbreak of the H5N8 virus, which led to the death or killing of millions of birds in an outbreak in western Europe last winter, was at a large egg producing farm in the province of Ferrara.

 

The latest outbreak was confirmed on Oct. 6 and about 853,000 hens are due to be culled by Oct. 17, the IZSV zoological institute said.

 

Another involved 14,000 turkeys in the province of Brescia, which are due to be culled by Oct. 13.

 

A third involved 12,400 broiler chickens at a smaller farm in the province of Vicenza and two others were among a small number of hens, ducks, broilers and turkeys on family farms.

 

In those three cases, all the birds have been culled.

Courtesy of reuters.com

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42,000 turkeys killed due to bird flu in Gazzo Veronese, Italy

Bird flu: 42 thousand turkeys culled as a precaution in Gazzo.

 

42 thousand turkeys were culled at a farm Roncanova, in Gazzo Veronese, after that the analyzes conducted by the Institute Zooprofilattico delle Venezie had sanctioned the presence of the virus AH5 high pathogenicity.

 

In recent days, new outbreaks of bird flu had been discovered in the Veneto and in the municipalities bordering Lombardi, with the region that was running for cover. So Friday veterinarians Animal welfare sector Legnago Ulss 9 went in breeding Verona to communicate the news to the owners and deliver the documentation for the mayor Vecchini, who issued the seizure order and killing of animals, as required by law. 

 

Finally, a security zone of three kilometers has been placed around the site where the virus and a surveillance will instead have a radius of ten kilometers was discovered.

 

ULSS 9 do however know that it was primarily an act of “prevention” means any form of bird flu found in Gazzo fact, it would not be very contagious to humans.

Courtesy of veronasera.it

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6,000 turkeys are to be killed due to bird flu in Lincolnshire, UK

Bird flu has been confirmed at a farm in Lincolnshire four weeks after it was found at a nearby unit.

 

A flock of 6,000 turkeys has been diagnosed with the H5N8 strain of avian flu, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

 

Some of the birds at Low Farm in Fulstow, near Louth, East Lindsey, have died. The rest are due to be culled.

 

Defra said it was “unlikely to be directly linked to the previous case” at the nearby Austen Fen Farm.

 

A 1.8-mile (3km) protection zone and a six-mile (10km) surveillance area have been set up around Low Farm to reduce the risk of the disease spreading.

 

‘Investigation under way’

 

Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens said: “We have taken swift action to limit the risk of the disease spreading with restrictions in place around the affected premises.

 

“A full investigation is under way to determine the source of the infection.”

 

The protection zone at Austen Fen Farm, near Louth, was removed on 9 January but surveillance continued at the site, Defra said.

 

The same strain has been discovered in birds in Settle, North Yorkshire, a swannery in Dorset and flocks in Carmarthenshire, south west Wales.

 

Last month, the government introduced an avian influenza prevention zone, which lasts until 28 February, to help protect poultry and captive birds from avian flu after the strain was found in 14 European countries including Germany and France.

Courtesy of BBC News

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5,000 Turkeys Confirmed With Bird flu At Farm In Lincolnshire, UK

An outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed at a farm with 5,000 turkeys near Louth in Lincolnshire.

 

The birds have been affected with the virulent H5N8 strain of the disease.

 

A 3km protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone is now in place around the farm to prevent the disease spreading.

 

Most of the birds at the site have died and officials say the rest will be culled.

 

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed the outbreak and said the disease has been affecting animals across Europe.

 

Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens told Sky News immediate steps had been taken to stop the spread and reassure the public. 

 

“Public Health England (PHE) has confirmed that the risk to public health is very low and the Food Standards Agency has said that bird flu does not pose a food safety risk for UK consumers,” he said.

 

PHE said Avian flu was “primarily a disease of birds”, and there have never been any recorded cases of H5N8 in humans.

 

A “prevention zone” was set up across England, Scotland and Wales last week after a virulent strain of the virus was picked up in Europe.

 

All poultry and captive bird keepers were advised to house their birds.

 

Defra said theses measures remain in place and advised people to report any suspected cases.

 

A detailed investigation is in progress to determine the most likely source of the outbreak.

 

The most recent previous case of avian influenza confirmed in the UK was at a poultry farm in Dunfermline on 13 January 2016.

 

The outbreak is not expected to have any impact on the supplies of turkeys or other birds over Christmas.

 

Courtesy of Sky News

http://tinyurl.com/go2c3kq

39,000 turkeys killed due to avian flu in Missouri, USA

A southwestern Missouri turkey farm where bird flu was found remains quarantined after 39,000 of its birds were destroyed last week as a precaution, agricultural officials said Wednesday.

 

The H5N1 strain of the virus, detected during a routine inspection last week, is weaker than the H5N2 strain that cost turkey and egg producers in Missouri and 14 other states about 48 million birds last year. It’s also a different than the H7N8 strain found in January in Indiana, where more than 400,000 birds at about 10 poultry farms were exterminated.

 

The bird flu found on the farm in Jasper County is a low-pathogenic variety, meaning the birds often show no or only minor symptoms and have a lesser mortality rate, Missouri Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Sarah Alsager said. The state would not identify the farm where employees and U.S. Department of Agriculture contractors euthanized the birds.

 

Commercial flocks within a six-mile radius of the Missouri farm have tested negative for the virus, Alsager said, and testing and surveillance is continuing in nearby counties.

 

U.S. taxpayers spent hundreds of millions of dollars last year cleaning up dead birds and disinfecting after the bird flu swept through the Midwest; Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri lost the most birds. Money also was spent to fund research and stockpile a bird flu vaccine in case the virus returns.

 

Avian flu viruses typically do not infect humans, though it has happened sporadically, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. It advises that people observe wild birds only from a distance, avoid contact with poultry that appear ill or have died and stay away from surfaces apparently tainted with feces from wild or domestic birds.

Courtesy of abcnews.go.com

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24,000 Fowls, 250 Peacocks, and other birds killed due to Avian Flu in Adamawa, Nigeria

The Adamawa State government has destroyed over 24,000 various species of birds infected with avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu.

 

The farm manager of Adda-Rogo, where the bird flu outbreak occurred, Muhammed Hassan, said over 24,000 fowls, 250 peacocks, 456 guinea fowls and 54 Turkeys affected had been destroyed.

 

Speaking shortly after the disposal of the birds at Adda-Rogo Poultry Farm in Toungo Local Government Area, the commissioner for Livestock Production, Isa Salihu, said the federal and state governments had taken precautionary measures to curtail spread of the disease.

 

Mr. Salihu said all affected poultry farms and poultry workers in the area had been quarantined.

 

“We thank God for quick intervention to contain the disease from spreading to other poultry farms in the area.

 

“Already the state government has massively embarked on sensitization campaign for people to avoid having contact with dead birds or eating infected birds,” Mr. Salihu said.

 

He added that the state government had restricted movements of birds, eggs and other related animals, being part of measures to contain the disease.

Courtesy of allafrica.com

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