Bernard Matthew's Turkey Farm In The Clear

At present it is extremely difficult to catch bird flu...

You may remember having read about the outbreak of birdflu in a Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Suffolk. At the time it was taken very seriously and the movement of any birds to and from that particular farm was completely banned. A special exclusion zone of 3km was immediately put into place and all the turkeys were culled. In all nearly 160,000 birds were killed and a further 2,600 turkeys died from the H5N1 bird flu virus.

On the 1st March 2007 the 3 kilometres exclusion zone around the turkey farm was lifted but a 10km surveillance zone was kept in place in order to keep an eye on surrounding poultry just in case there had been other flu infections. The 10 kilometres surveillance zone has now been lifted too. This also means that poultry markets and fairs will now be allowed in the area.

Despite being given the all clear the UK’s chief veterinary officer said that there was still more things that needed to be done at this turkey farm in order to find out exactly how the H5N1 one virus got into the farm. They will also looking at ways of preventing further outbreaks and ways of managing similar outbreaks that are likely to appear sometime in the future.

The UK government is still asking poultry farmers and anyone involved in the poultry business to be extremely vigilant and to report any possible sightings of sick birds. It is likely that this particular infection came from infected birds in Hungary but this has not been confirmed 100 percent.

So far the UK has been fortunate in that there have been no cases of bird influenza in humans. At present it is extremely difficult to catch bird flu from an actual bird but in the future things may change and that is why the threat of the disease must be taken extremely seriously. The UK government has bought millions of pounds worth of Tamiflu which is generally considered to be the best medication for humans in case they contract the flu.