Fears grow that bird flu virus has entered food chain

[sharon sanders]

Re: Fears grow that bird flu virus has entered food chain

Welcome Bois de Durou.

 

[Thornton]

Re: Fears grow that bird flu virus has entered food chain

Welcome Bois_de_Durou

It appears that a single abattoir in Hungary was handling both the geese that were infected with H5N1 and the turkeys destined for Suffolk. The abattoir would have been swilled out and disinfected once the geese were killed but it's very easy for the virus to have been passed on to the turkeys. One feather or a single piece of skin the size of a breadcrumb from one of the infected geese can contain 100,000 viruses, which can kill 100,000 birds.

My questions to the experts on here :-
Is it accepted practice to cull infected birds at a commercial abattoir and is the infection statistic quoted accurate?

The infection statistic quoted above is a descriptive picture to convey a truth. There are many variables that influence how many viral particles (virions) are in a tissue or body fluid sample. My direct knowldge is with Herpes virus (cold sores). It is a larger more complex virus than influenza. I know we would take samples from a single cold sore and calculated that one tenth of a milliliter contained ranges of up to 10 to the sixth to 10 to the ninth power of particles. It is unlikely one virion is going to cause disease in one animal. However, thousands to millions of virions can cause disease in one animal that then produced 10 to the ninth power more virions (or more) that go on to eventually cause disease to hundreds of thousands of diseased animals traceable to that index case. That is why it would not be sound practice to cull infected birds in a commercial abattoir. Generally I read that culling takes place on the site of the infected flock. But I cannot find a FAO or DEFRA policy on the issue.

JT

 

[MHSC]

Re: Fears grow that bird flu virus has entered food chain

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=228872007&format=print

Bird flu farm test results on meat awaited

VETS were today awaiting the results of tests on meat transported from the UK to Hungary after the British bird flu outbreak.

Hungarian officials were reportedly carrying out tests on the processed meat, said to have been taken from the Suffolk farm at the centre of the outbreak to Hungary in the past few days.

It was claimed yesterday that lorryloads of turkey meat had been taken from the Bernard Matthews' farm in Suffolk to Hungary, as late as three days after bird flu was confirmed at the farm on February 1.

Also yesterday, Environment Secretary David Miliband laid the blame for the bird flu outbreak at the farm squarely at the door of the British firm.

It followed the Government's announcement on Thursday that scientists would be examining a food processing plant on the Suffolk farm - and that the virus had spread to three more of the farm's 21 sheds. An exclusion zone has been in place around the farm since the H5N1 strain took hold.

Bernard Matthews said on Thursday it had suspended all trade between Hungary and the UK.

http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=228872007&format=print