Articles and Speeches

Keep your eye on the Birds
09-Feb-07, Windsor Express Article.

Bird flu has made an unwelcome return to our domestic headlines as it was confirmed that chickens on a Bernard Matthews farm in Suffolk had contracted the disease. The H5N1 version of the disease had infected 2,600 turkeys and triggered a mass cull of the farm’s 160,000 birds. And at the time of writing, doctors were carrying out tests on a vet who fell ill after working on the outbreak.

The headlines have certainly brought back unwelcome memories of the foot and mouth and BSE crises, and the poultry industry, which employs over 50,000 people across the country, will be worried about their livelihoods.

Fortunately, the virus can only be caught through working very closely with infected birds. It is also some comfort that it cannot be passed easily between humans, although scientists recognise that it could mutate into a more infectious form. Whilst the potential for a flu pandemic is quite remote, the consequences are extremely worrying as the human cost, even if the outbreak is contained, could be significant.

I believe in giving credit where it’s due, and Defra officials and experts seem to have done their best to contain the threat, in difficult circumstances. We must watch and hope that, with the current paralysis at the heart of Government over the upcoming leadership change, ministers’ eyes will not be taken off the job of protecting the public.