Flu scare puts nation's eyes on Holton
08 February 2007
HOLTON came under intense national and international media spotlight this week as a potentially dangerous strain of bird flu was confirmed at Bernard Matthews turkey factory.
The 1100 strong workforce, drawn from a large area around Halesworth, Beccles and Bungay, was sent home on Thursday after scientists confirmed the H5N1 strain, and as protected staff began culling 160,000 birds both BBC and ITV anchored their news bulletins from the site with the BBC's Natasha Kaplinsky sand ITN's Geraint Vincent among the presenters based there.
A huge media circus was quickly established. But by yesterday with the staff back at the site on Tuesday and all the dead carcasses removed to an incinerator in Staffordshire, and illness to one vet and two staff confirmed as nothing more than routine chest infections, the drama for towns and villages surrounding the factory receded.
But at its height it had seen television and press teams interviewing people in Halesworth, Beccles and Bungay, asking their views and whether they would continue to eat turkey, as well as in the countrywide, where people with domestic fowl were ordered to keep them indoors until the emergency was over.
Speculation on how the virus, lethal to birds and potentially dangerous for humans, got into the turkey shed dominated national broadcasts and newspapers for several days, as did the effect on the food industry. But a check by the Journal in Halesworth this week revealed that most people were ambivalent about the possible dangers, which scientists emphasised were negligible to humans, and felt a lot of hype had increased the drama.
A meeting of councillors in Halesworth, called to let local councils know what precautions they should take, was commandeered as a base for BBC Look East's live news broadcast on Monday, and pubs, shops and other establishments were the target of media inquiries
At Ditchingham the chickens on the chicken roundabout were declared wild and not affected by the order to keep fowl under cover. Ditchingham resident Maureen Ankrett found herself at the top of one national bulletin as she commented on the chickens.
As the task of sterilising the vast Holton plant began this week some precautions were relaxed, but others are likely to remain in place for up to three months.
Officials from the Department of Food and Rural Affairs worked hard to keep the fear factor of the outbreak of bird flu in perspective and advised that the threat to humans was negligible.
But how the virus, which has killed 167 people in the far east, came to get into the turkeys at a factory where biosecurity is given high priority, remained a mystery, with Bernard Matthews commercial director Bart Dalla Mura saying a wild bird getting into a turkey shed was the probable source.
There were those to gain from the emergency, however. A group of east European workers at the factory volunteered to go into the sheds to carry out the culling of birds in the infected shed over four days - and claimed they earned up to ?800 each for the risk.
08 February 2007
HOLTON came under intense national and international media spotlight this week as a potentially dangerous strain of bird flu was confirmed at Bernard Matthews turkey factory.
The 1100 strong workforce, drawn from a large area around Halesworth, Beccles and Bungay, was sent home on Thursday after scientists confirmed the H5N1 strain, and as protected staff began culling 160,000 birds both BBC and ITV anchored their news bulletins from the site with the BBC's Natasha Kaplinsky sand ITN's Geraint Vincent among the presenters based there.
A huge media circus was quickly established. But by yesterday with the staff back at the site on Tuesday and all the dead carcasses removed to an incinerator in Staffordshire, and illness to one vet and two staff confirmed as nothing more than routine chest infections, the drama for towns and villages surrounding the factory receded.
But at its height it had seen television and press teams interviewing people in Halesworth, Beccles and Bungay, asking their views and whether they would continue to eat turkey, as well as in the countrywide, where people with domestic fowl were ordered to keep them indoors until the emergency was over.
Speculation on how the virus, lethal to birds and potentially dangerous for humans, got into the turkey shed dominated national broadcasts and newspapers for several days, as did the effect on the food industry. But a check by the Journal in Halesworth this week revealed that most people were ambivalent about the possible dangers, which scientists emphasised were negligible to humans, and felt a lot of hype had increased the drama.
A meeting of councillors in Halesworth, called to let local councils know what precautions they should take, was commandeered as a base for BBC Look East's live news broadcast on Monday, and pubs, shops and other establishments were the target of media inquiries
At Ditchingham the chickens on the chicken roundabout were declared wild and not affected by the order to keep fowl under cover. Ditchingham resident Maureen Ankrett found herself at the top of one national bulletin as she commented on the chickens.
As the task of sterilising the vast Holton plant began this week some precautions were relaxed, but others are likely to remain in place for up to three months.
Officials from the Department of Food and Rural Affairs worked hard to keep the fear factor of the outbreak of bird flu in perspective and advised that the threat to humans was negligible.
But how the virus, which has killed 167 people in the far east, came to get into the turkeys at a factory where biosecurity is given high priority, remained a mystery, with Bernard Matthews commercial director Bart Dalla Mura saying a wild bird getting into a turkey shed was the probable source.
There were those to gain from the emergency, however. A group of east European workers at the factory volunteered to go into the sheds to carry out the culling of birds in the infected shed over four days - and claimed they earned up to ?800 each for the risk.