Bird Flu...

[ianthe plumb]

Should we be worried now its reached our shores?????

[Zen]

I.m prepared http://www.leeharding.net/hideout/?p=26

[Coobeastie]

no

[Drisgirl]

No - unless it becomes a foot and mouth situation which means my husband is laid off because he relies on going on farmers and rural land because of the job he does.He was off work for a year because of that -although he never claimed and just got work where he could.

I suspect there is more in Scotland - not scaremongering but my daughter was on the bus to Dundee just on Saturday and there was a dead swan in a field.Bear in mind it took 10 days for this first one to be reported then I suspect there are more.I am not unduly concerned as it could have hit any part of the UK due to migration of birds.

I am confident the experts have been fully briefed and have been on 'red alert' so to speak.

[laurence2]

No, its all media hype

[spacechimp]

Well, there's nothing that we can do to stop it, so fretting is useless.

[jamwan55]

my wife and kids saw a dead swan on yesterday

[jamwan55]

in ayrshire

[mimififi]

yesturday, there was a really sick pigeon on the green outside our house. We called the RSPCA to come and get it because although it looked unlikely to survive, we didn't want it simply being ripped to bits by the ninja cats.

My husband picked it up and put it in a box till they arrived. He used gloves, and looked for sign of trauma, there wasn't a mark on it except for it being stick thin.

When the RSPCA women got here, she said it looked like it was nearly dead. It had deteriorated quickly since picking itup some 20 mins before.

I asked her if she was worried about bird flu and she said no and picked it up out of the box with her bare hands.

We burned the box in the incinerator and threw the gloves.

We live in West sussex. maybe or maybe not BF., I'm scoping the local rags to see if there is any news on it.

[jump79]

No, as yet its not a full blown outbreak. Only if it passes on from the migrating birds to poultry is there any risk of it affecting humans. In which case, sales of poultry and eggs will fall dramatically and no doubt, that particular farming sector will suffer (similar to what happened during the mad cow disease season).

[libertie]

I'm not particulary worried about it and I spend almost every Sunday having an after lunch stroll along a beach on the East Coast of Scotland...sure, I won't be picking up any dead birds, but that's not something I'm in the habit of doing anyway!

[nedflanders]

OMG HELP!!!! Call dustin hoffman and morgan freeman to catch marcel the crazed monkey with Ebola.

[OBonio]

BBC's headline yesterday : UK awaits results of avian flu test

What it actually meant : UK MEDIA awaits results of avian flu test hoping it is H5N1 so it can bolster it's rule by fear policies.

[mata hari]

Is it only me who saw on the news in the last few days, the Chief Vetinary Surgeon going into some offices and the news was, that she was going to put into place the trial crisis situation if bird flue ever got to the UK? This was just before the dead swan was found. Coincidence, my imagination, or a fake crisis to test the services responses???

[Peahead66]

mata hari - I saw it but nobody else I know did. Personally I feel most for the poultry farmers and that this will eventually be like the foot and mouth situation. An agribusiness takeover plan methinks. Big profits for big pharma also. Coincidence methinks not. Funny thing coincidences, there were also training exercises on exactly the same days as 9-11, 7/7 and the Madrid bomings too... at exactly the same time as each of them happened!!! They are all confirmed facts and can be checked out BTW. Anyway, I digress..Atchew..Atchew..

[ianess]

Slightly worried....yes. Panic-sticken....no. I sympathise with anyone whose livelihood depends on the poultry business and who may be affected by this manufactured crisis.
It's in most probability media hype and they'd be better trying to ban tobacco and the internal combustion engine if they were really worried about the effects on the health of the human population.
It's virtually impossible to walk along a shoreline without coming across a dead bird but no-one really goes guddling amongst the remains do they?
From Dad's Army....DON'T PANIC!

[mightyWBA]

When I was young we were all going to die in a nuclear war,then it was chemical war.This was followed by AIDS,mad cow disease,SARS,Osama bin Laden,and now Bird Flu.

Its all exagerated nonsense,created by our silly media.

Any way I'm off to give the budgie a lem sip,he doesn't seem himself today.

[Toureman]

One dead bird found and the press go into a "feeding frenzy".

I agree with everything Mighty says above.

From my house I can see nothing but open ground with the whole of Snowdonia in front of me, a man was reported missing and rescue teams and helicopters were out for two weeks searching for the body, I still don't know if they found him. If one bird with the flue was found in a village in Scotland what are the chances that there must be hundreds or even thousands of others all over the UK that have not been seen! Why have none of the media or so called experts not mentioned this?.

[Drisgirl]

No-one in the East of Scotland is panicking or unduly concerned.

It doesnt help though when you get the like of Waitrose (dont trade in Scotland to my knowledge) putting up notices saying they are not selling Scottish poultry or eggs.I could kick their ar$es for that type of scaremongering.

To answer ians initial Q - its reached just about every other countries shores so I never thought for a milisecond we would be exempt.

I think we normal members of the 'public' take it in our stride and as someone said before the media try to hype it up so their reporters get nice jollies round the country and they dont have to search for a headliner.

[ianess]

mightyWBA.......how's the budgie today?

[beejaybee]

If in doubt give all birds HEN SIP.