Orkney chicken deaths 'not bird flu'

[Susie]

http://scotlandtoday.scottishtv.colo...1&newsid=10877


Unconfirmed reports of bird flu at Orkney farm
There are unconfirmed reports that the first case of bird flu to hit Britain has broken out at a farm in the Orkney Islands. A number of birds have died and tests have been carried out to try to establish the cause.

The Scottish Executive's environment and rural affairs department has released a statement confirming that a number of birds have died on a poultry farm on mainland Orkney. A veterinary officer visited the premises yesterday and took samples for laboratory investigation of suspected avian notifiable disease - which could be a strain of Avian Influenza or Newcastle Disease, better known of course as bird flu.

Suspect cases are investigated as a matter of routine. Thirty nine similar investigations have been carried out in Great Britain to date this year and all have so far proved negative.



16 March 2006 11:00

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Unconfirmed reports of bird flu in Scotland

16/03/2006 11:36
North Today can reveal that investigations are underway at a poultry farm in Orkney into a suspected case of bird flu.
The Scottish Executive says a number of birds have died and it?s a routine inquiry.
A vet visited the premises yesterday and took samples for examination. They say it could be a strain of avian flu or another disease called Newcastle disease, whether it?s the deadly H5N1 virus remains to be seen.
The Executive are stressing that 39 similar investigations have been carried out across the UK this year.
It?s thought a result of these tests will be known either later today or tomorrow.
Poultry keepers have been warned to be vigilant for any signs of disease in their birds.
There has been widespread concern over this disease, millions of birds have died or been destroyed as a result of outbreaks across the world
The number of human cases is also rising with recent deaths in turkey in particular causing concern

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Unconfirmed reports of bird flu in Scotland

Orkney chicken deaths 'not bird flu'
7.20AM, Fri Mar 17 2006

Bird flu was not responsible for the deaths of about 100 chickens on the Scottish isle of Orkney, tests have confirmed.

Samples of the Orkney birds were sent to the Laboratory for Avian Influenza in Weybridge.

Restrictions at the farm in Sandwick will remain in place until the results are confirmed next week but preliminary tests on the birds show no signs of H5 avian influenza.

But the initial findings were welcomed by farmer John McNally, 63, who runs the farm.

He said: "I'm certainly glad it wasn't bird flu, but I never thought it was.

"Now we want to know what caused it, and if it turns out it was something illegal, then hopefully we'll find out now."

Mr McNally has about 400 free-range hens on his three-acre farm.

He said around 100 had been found dead yesterday by a friend who was looking after the farm while he and his wife visited relatives in Australia and the West Midlands.

A Scottish Executive spokesman said tonight: "Preliminary results from samples taken from dead chickens on a farm on mainland Orkney have indicated no presence of H5 avian influenza.

"Further laboratory tests are required to confirm these preliminary findings."

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Orkney chicken deaths 'not bird flu'

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="305"><tbody><tr><td> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="305"><tbody><tr><td valign="top">Bird flu fears sweep Orkney isle as 100 chickens die on remote farm

By Will Pavia and Val Elliott
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="5"></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table style="width: 505px; height: 923px;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top">PANIC swept through a Scottish island yesterday as a scene now familiar across Europe played out on a tiny poultry farm. Bon Accord Farm, a three-acre holding on the main island of Orkney, was sealed off by police and officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs after 100 hens were found dead there on Tuesday. Neighbours saw masked men leave carrying white bags; samples to be flown for testing at a laboratory in Surrey.
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</td></tr></tbody></table>The owners, John and Gillian McNally, returned home from a seven-week holiday in Australia yesterday to find Government vets carrying out tests on the surviving birds.
Mr McNally, 63, said more than a hundred of their 400-strong flock had died. ?I said, ?What a load of rubbish? when I heard what they were testing for.?
Last night initial tests for H5N1, the deadly strain of avian flu, proved negative.
The farm remained locked down and restrictions remain on movement in and out of Orkney. Results from further tests will be known next week.
Mr and Mrs McNally are in quarantine with the surviving hens. Mr McNally said: ?We?re just back from a long holiday so there was nothing to eat in the place. We?d have gone really hungry if a friend hadn?t got a few supplies for us and handed them over the fence.?
Police were on hand yesterday to keep people well away from the isolated smallholding, which stands on the brow of a hill in open countryside five miles from the town of Stromness.
Warning signs were placed 100 yards from the couple?s small, single-storey cottage and officers within the cordon shouted at onlookers to keep away.
Mr McNally said: ?Our flock is normally free range but the rest of the birds have been locked in sheds. It will make it easier if they have to be destroyed.? Mr McNally said a friend looking after the hens had notified the authorities after finding a large number of the birds had died.
The couple moved to Orkney in 1999 from the south of England. ?We came here to retire,? he added. ?But we?ve built up the flock and we?ve been selling around 2,000 eggs a week all over Orkney.

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