Re: Bird flu (H5N1) in Norfolk Confirmed, November 12 +
It is unlikely that either mark above is correct. The latest cull was at the Grange farm on Hinderclay road, which is just north of Redgrave. The LARGE farm marked with the 6th placemark here (which is just southwest of placemark 2 in the map above)
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...,0.985165&spn=0.089542,0.298691&t=h&z=12&om=1
Would appear to be the sixth farm. The original outbreak was a Redgrave Park, which is just south of Redgrave (placemark 1) and the distance between 1 and 6 would be about right for a 3 km zone.
Cull of sixth flock in bird flu oubreak
MICHAEL POLLITT, EDP RURAL AFFAIRS EDITOR
22 November 2007
08:39
Farm staff living at Grange Farm, Redgrave, have been linked with the latest cull to contain the spread of bird flu, it was revealed today.
Geoffrey Buchanan, operations director of Gressingham Foods, said that Defra have declared the farm as a “dangerous contact” because the five seasonal workers looking after the flock of turkeys, ducks and geese also had contact with the other five farms involved in the lates outbreak of H5N1 highly-pathogenic strain of blu flu.
Defra decided last night to cull all the birds at Grange Farm as a precautionary measure although all of the tests of the birds at the farm to date have been negative for avian influenza.
Officials will cull a total of 68,000 birds on
Grange farm at Hinderclay Road, Redgrave - 56,000 ducks, 9,000 turkeys and 3,000 geese.
Mr Buchanan said that the flocks have been declared a “dangerous contact” because the five seasonal workers who operated the Redgrave Park, Grove, Hill Meadow, Stone House and Bridge farms were lodging in a mobile home on Grange farm.
Redgrave Poultry, a sudsidiary of Woodbridge-based Gressingham Foods, moved the workers in to a local bed and breakfast on Tuesday last week, as per Defra's guidelines to minimise movements on to and off farms.
Throughout the process, Defra and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency have had our full support in the continued investigation to identify the cause of the outbreak, said Mr Buchanan.
Defra's acting chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said: “This decision has been taken based on new information which indicates the possibility that the poultry on this premise may have been exposed to infection. I can not emphasise enough that it is essential all poultry keepers practice the highest levels of biosecurity and report any suspicions of disease to their local Animal Health office."
These premises are within the existing Surveillance Zone and have been under restrictions and investigation since 15th November.
The national ban on bird gatherings remains firmly in place.
Movement restrictions apply in the protection, surveillance and restricted zones, and bird keepers in those zones are required to house or otherwise isolate their birds from wild birds.
There have been two outbreaks of avian flu - the first at Park Farm, Regrave, and the second, which was confirmed in a flock of 9,000 turkeys at Hill Meadow Farm, Knettishall, on Monday.
All the birds at the flocks at the farms, involving a total of 28,600 birds, mainly free-range turksys have been culled.
The first outbreak of the same strain of the H5N1 virus was found at Holton, near Halesworth, in February on a Bernard Matthews' rearing farm. All 159,000 turkeys were slaugtered.
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/News/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=News&tBrand=edponline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED22%20Nov%202007%2008%3A39%3A39%3A003
