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Exchequer Leghorn
Do you remember the Exchequer Leghorn? It was bred by Robert Miller of Denny. He had been breeding pure leghorns and it appears that an infusion of Minorca blood resulted in the “new “breed.
His nephew, Billy Hay Miller, lives not far from me in Polmont. He was a breeder himself at Whyteside, which is now a hotel.
Avian Influenza
Russia confirms new cases of deadly bird flu
Moscow - The H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus has been found among dozens of dead hens in Russia's southern region of Volgograd, in the second such case in two weeks, an official with the local administration said.
"A local veterinary laboratory confirmed that the blood of the dead hens contained the H5N1 virus," the Interfax news agency quoted an official with the administration of the district where the birds were found as saying.
Samples were sent to the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow, where the type of virus was to be more thoroughly tested, the official said.
Twenty-five hens died Tuesday in the village of Kolobrodovo, in the Frolovo district of the Volgograd region, he said. The village was placed under quarantine.
There is also a Report from SEERAD that a case of Newcastle Disease has been found in Bulgaria.
ND or Fowl Pest is also a respiratory disease and is similar to bird flu.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic
Another two cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus have been confirmed in the Czech Republic, an official said Monday 11th. Spokesman for the state veterinary authority Josef Duben said that a reference lab in Prague found the deadly strain in two dead swans found in Hluboka and Vltavou, 80 miles south of Prague.
The tests had already been confirmed by the EU reference lab in Britain, he said. Another four swans found in the same region tested positive for the H5 virus, and further tests will be conducted to determine whether they had the H5N1 strain, Duben said.
Why humans don't easily catch bird flu
The article below is part of one which appeared in The New Scientist magazine, and may be useful in any discussions you may have with members of the public.
25 March 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. (Subscribe and get 4 free issues.)
Bird flu can be fatal in humans, but it is also quite hard to catch - and the reason for both lies deep in our lungs.
Bird flu infects birds, and human flu infects humans, when the virus binds to a sugar molecule on the surface of the host's cells - a different sugar for the two kinds of viruses.
This week Yoshihiro Kawaoka and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report that while cells in our noses, throats and lungs have only the sugar that matches human flu, we also have the "bird" sugar on cells in the alveoli, the delicate air sacs in our lungs.
It is the alveoli that are destroyed in the lethal pneumonia caused by H5N1 bird flu, which is why it is fatal to humans. H5N1 is hard for us to catch because it doesn't bind readily to human noses and throats, where flu viruses usually enter and exit the body (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/440435a). >>.>cont
To become a human pandemic, H5N1 must learn to bind to the "human" sugars.
A team led by James Stevens at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, reports that some mutations in the H3 flu family do make this possible. Such a mutation in H5N1 might allow it to spread rapidly between humans.
SEERAD
This following report is part of a letter from SEERAD regarding flu vaccination for poultry workers.
At the last meeting in the Corn Exchange we informed you that Health colleagues were considering the timing of any offer of routine seasonal flu vaccination for poultry workers and others. The Chief Medical Officer has decided to add poultry workers to the target groups for free routine flu immunisation in the current flu season. This is as a precautionary measure in order to minimise the theoretical public health risk of avian influenza mixing with seasonal flu and possibly mutating into a pandemic flu strain; it does not, as you will recall from earlier discussions, protect against Avian Influenza.
NHS Boards have been instructed to arrange for all identifiable poultry workers in their area to be given the current seasonal flu vaccination before the end of April 2006. We are providing data from the Poultry register to support them in this. We expect that Health Boards will be contacting poultry holdings and farming organisations to inform them of these arrangements, and would ask that you, as major employers in the sector, will work with them to ensure a good uptake of vaccine.
Licences for Movements
Stakeholder Update 12 April 2006
This paper sets out how the licensing system will work. It is based on Commission Decision 2006/115/EC, but this decision may be subject to amendment, and the licence conditions may have to change to reflect this. Whilst the system is being developed, necessary movements are being treated on a case-by-case basis.
At present there is a 3km radius Wild Bird Protection Zone with an accompanying 10 km Wild Bird Surveillance Zone around Cellardyke on the Fife coast. The SVS has identified 12 small, non-commercial producers in the WBPZ, and a further 73 poultry premises in the WBSZ, of which 5 are commercial scale. In these areas there are biosecurity requirements on –farm, movement controls on poultry and products, and birds must be housed. In addition, hunting and bird gatherings are banned in these zones. Enhanced surveillance is underway.
Beyond this, in a strip running from the Firth of Forth east of the M90 and up to Stonehaven, we have established a Wild Bird Risk Area. Controls in the WBRA are lighter than in the WBPZ and WBSZ and depend on the assessment of disease risk; at present the controls required are that birds must be housed and gatherings are banned. Again enhanced surveillance is ongoing.
The rest of Scotland, and all of England and Wales, are not subject to restrictions. There are no movement conditions on table eggs.
SEERAD Bird Flu Help Line
The help line number has changed. It is now an 0845 number with automated options and will ultimately take you through to the Perth Area Office. The following message is on the Scottish Executive website:
The Scottish helpline number is 08451 55 33 66 and is operational on a daily basis between the hours of 08:30 and 17:00. It provides information on the situation in Scotland, particularly legislation and policy.
Food Standards Agency Chair Deirdre Hutton reaffirmed that the Agency's existing advice is not changed by the Scottish development, in line with the expert opinions of the World Health Organization, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the UK's independent expert scientific advisers.
She said: 'If you wish to eat poultry and eggs you should continue to do so, following the normal precautions of cooking thoroughly and by that we mean cooking until there are no red juices, or in the case of eggs, cooking until the white is hard. And that advice applies to cooking chickens generally, not just because of the possibility of avian flu.'
The Food Standards Agency considers that avian flu does not pose a food safety risk for UK consumers.
Currently, there is one confirmed case of the avian flu virus (H5N1) in the UK, in a dead wild bird. The World Health Organization (WHO) advises that in areas free from the disease, poultry and poultry products can be prepared and eaten as usual (following good hygiene practice and proper cooking), with no fear of acquiring infection.
Like the WHO, the FSA advises proper handling during food preparation. When handling raw poultry, the person involved in the food preparation should wash their hands thoroughly and clean surfaces and utensils in contact with the poultry products. Soap and hot water are sufficient for this purpose.
Happy Easter
As it is Easter week-end our poultry-poet has penned the following: -
Oh, No!
The little Scottish
bunny’s sick,
He thinks he’s got avian flu.
He can't get out of bed,
And there's still so much to do!
He's going to need some helpers,
But he's not sure just who.
Could you help the Scottish bunny?
Would you know what to do... Like...
Wriggling your ears and nose,
Eating all your carrots,
And hopping on your toes?
GUESS WHAT!
The little Scottish bunny’s better,
He didn't have avian flu.
He just ate too many jelly babies,
And chocolate bunnies, too!
As you know I went down to England last Friday, spending sometime with my son and then back up to Ormskirk for the twin’s christening.
Thoroughly enjoyed meeting all my relatives, the talk was good and the food even better.
My son Allan and Maria, took Muriel and I to Trentham Gardens, Stoke-on-Trent on the Saturday where I shopped in one of the many shops at this large Retail Centre. This one sold foods from all over the place; some of the foods were most interesting. I took my basket to one of the three tills, but when I offered my Bank of Scotland £20 note the young lady refused it. Said they did not accept them, so I told her politely that I could not accept her English goods and left.
Is that racism ? What is the legal answer ?
Dennis Surgenor
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