sharon sanders
Editor-in-Chief & President
Economically devastating......
Bird flu
Stalking the land
Nov 15th 2007
From The Economist print edition
Another outbreak brings more culling of Britain's unhappy farm animals
IF MISERY loves company, Britain's embattled livestock farmers must be over the moon. On November 12th William and Geoffrey Buchanan, poultry farmers in Suffolk, joined a growing band whose animals have been put down in recent months because they had contagious diseases. On November 13th government vets said that their free-range turkeys which had died at the weekend had tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. All 6,500 birds on the farm have now been slaughtered. Birds at four nearby farms were culled too.
It is the second outbreak of this particular disease in Britain; in February H5N1 was contained only after the slaughter of 160,000 fowl at a large Suffolk farm. Then in July came foot-and-mouth, a highly contagious virus that affects cows, sheep and pigs. It flared up again in September, despite a 2,000-strong cull and nationwide restrictions on moving farm animals. And just a few days later, bluetongue, a disease of ruminants that is spread by midges, made its first British appearance.
The latest blow came just as government vets could have hoped to draw breath and start making long-term battle plans. Foot-and-mouth seems to have been halted by a speedy official response, and EU restrictions on imports from Britain have been eased ahead of schedule. Bluetongue is quiescent over the winter, when it is too cold for midges. Officials are waiting to see whether the recent outbreak was caused by a few midges blown over from the continent or whether it has become endemic, in which case it will reappear in spring. In the meantime scientists are working to create a vaccine against it. On November 1st the farming ministry announced a tender for 10m-20m doses.
Despite their near-simultaneous arrival in Britain, the three diseases came by different routes and call for different approaches. Foot-and-mouth was accidentally released from a laboratory, and was tackled by culling and restricting animal movements. Neither measure can be deployed against the midges that spread bluetongue, so a vaccine is probably the only hope.
Bird flu is different again: like bovine TB, another plague, it is hard for humans to catch but serious when they do.
Again like TB, it is harboured by wild animals. Badgers are routinely culled in the hope of protecting cattle from TB, but the wild birds who visit the farm with bird flu cannot be slaughtered so easily. If they carry the disease, no quantity of slain turkeys will curb it. Christmas dinner may be scanty for years to come.
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10134231
Bird flu
Stalking the land
Nov 15th 2007
From The Economist print edition
Another outbreak brings more culling of Britain's unhappy farm animals
IF MISERY loves company, Britain's embattled livestock farmers must be over the moon. On November 12th William and Geoffrey Buchanan, poultry farmers in Suffolk, joined a growing band whose animals have been put down in recent months because they had contagious diseases. On November 13th government vets said that their free-range turkeys which had died at the weekend had tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu. All 6,500 birds on the farm have now been slaughtered. Birds at four nearby farms were culled too.
It is the second outbreak of this particular disease in Britain; in February H5N1 was contained only after the slaughter of 160,000 fowl at a large Suffolk farm. Then in July came foot-and-mouth, a highly contagious virus that affects cows, sheep and pigs. It flared up again in September, despite a 2,000-strong cull and nationwide restrictions on moving farm animals. And just a few days later, bluetongue, a disease of ruminants that is spread by midges, made its first British appearance.
The latest blow came just as government vets could have hoped to draw breath and start making long-term battle plans. Foot-and-mouth seems to have been halted by a speedy official response, and EU restrictions on imports from Britain have been eased ahead of schedule. Bluetongue is quiescent over the winter, when it is too cold for midges. Officials are waiting to see whether the recent outbreak was caused by a few midges blown over from the continent or whether it has become endemic, in which case it will reappear in spring. In the meantime scientists are working to create a vaccine against it. On November 1st the farming ministry announced a tender for 10m-20m doses.
Despite their near-simultaneous arrival in Britain, the three diseases came by different routes and call for different approaches. Foot-and-mouth was accidentally released from a laboratory, and was tackled by culling and restricting animal movements. Neither measure can be deployed against the midges that spread bluetongue, so a vaccine is probably the only hope.
Bird flu is different again: like bovine TB, another plague, it is hard for humans to catch but serious when they do.
Again like TB, it is harboured by wild animals. Badgers are routinely culled in the hope of protecting cattle from TB, but the wild birds who visit the farm with bird flu cannot be slaughtered so easily. If they carry the disease, no quantity of slain turkeys will curb it. Christmas dinner may be scanty for years to come.
http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10134231