Bird Flu In Scotland - Is it the deadly strain ?

[Polecat]

Breaking News: http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0...517468,00.html

[Polecat]

Preliminary tests have found the H5 avian flu in a sample from a swan found dead in Fife, health officials have revealed.
The exact strain of the virus is not yet known, but tests were continuing and further results were expected on Thursday.

The Scottish Executive said the area was being sealed off.

If the disease is confirmed as the deadly H5N1 strain there may be further restrictions put in place.

From the BBC

[matt_xyz]

now the media hysteria will resume. They've been waiting for this for weeks.

Matt

[Boddie]

my guy on the news reckons its H5N1. says he'd have money on it. price of poultry is likely to plummett. as if the farmers don't have enough to worry about

[Wild-Woman]

The media thrives on bad news. It's what sells papers nowadays. I'm certainly not going to get hysterical over it. Going out to feed them right now. :-)

[carlj]

Don't think government agencies help by over reacting. Wonder if DeFra will implement bird boycotting - twitchers to be held in detention camps, RAF taking out migrant birds trying to return to the country. Ok, a little flippant, but we know from foot and mouth how our beloved leaders tend to react.

[StuartDH]

It looks as though the bird was discovered on the 29 March and it was already very emaciated. The next job is to try and find out if it was a Bewick, Whooper or Mute swan to help get some idea of where it came from.

Defra are due to announce if it is H5N1 at 10am this morning.

[MalcolmX]

i find all this hysteria by the media totally without foundation . i own an established collection of wildfowl (40+birds) all enclosed . the chances of any diseases let alone bird flu getting in are very remote . i do not welcome hysterical neighbours trying to get me to kill these birds if the gov or the media start to panic . all the cases seem to be in migratory birds and i have yet to work out how these birds get to chickens ,how the flue gets to humans (giving the way we keep birds in the UK ) and if it gets to humans will it mutate to a killer strain . it seems all the victims live in poverty and spent a lot of time with dead birds so was it bird flue or was it a different virus named bird flue to fuel the media hype and government desire to totally control us all
I await further news.

[carlj]

Latest info is tomorrow before confirmation on strain.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2006/060405c.htm

[StuartDH]

It has now been confirmed as H5N1. The news seem to be keeping quite a level head and giving the experts plenty of opportunity to let everyone know that they shouldn't start worrying...let's hope tomorrow's tabloids can do the same.