2630 russian swans

[QUOTE=adriatica]it seems today they have brought the bird flu virus to parts of italy ...sicily the worst affected then calabria and puglia... the minister of health says there is not much to worry about as they have it all under control...might have heard that before in the uk...anyway for 21 days no movements of animals...presume birds are allowed out of these regions...

actually it will be hard for italy if it moves from the wild population... i cannot speak for other areas but here in our village and most small villages around...people still maintain poultry as part of their life... all our neighbours have chickens... living in amongst the houses or just down the road in their small allotments...so heres hoping that the measures they take will avoid it getting into the farmed animal population...[/QUOTE]

thats quite worrying....is it definate? that the virus strain has arrived

[FONT="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="3"]Hi

Its a worry for all poultry keepers..are your neighbours wearing a mask and gloves when they handle their poultry John? It may be a sensible thing for them to do...I bought a big box of the disposible gloves and masks from farmer's shop and put them on if I need to handle my bantams and to clean out their house.

If poultry keepers follow sensible guidelines we should be able to stop this Bird Flu from mutating into a more virulent strain causing a pandemic.

becky[/SIZE][/FONT]

Have you got to be handling the chickens to catch anything, I know the three villa's near us all have chucks and apart from one they roam freely, luckily all fenced off securely.

[QUOTE=giovanni]thats quite worrying....is it definate? that the virus strain has arrived[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=BBC News][url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4704046.stm]Seventeen migratory birds which had fallen ill or died were recovered from the Italian regions of Puglia, Calabria and Sicily.

Two of them - swans that were found in the Sicilian town of Messina - tested positive for the H5N1 strain, the Italian health ministry confirmed. [/url][/QUOTE]

_________________________________________

there are now 20 or so dead swans that have been found ....five of these are confirmed with whatever the technical name of this disease is... the problem for confirmation lies in the fact that the samples have to be sent off to padua and it seems there is about a ten day wait for confirmation...so they actually suspected the problem at the start of the month and have only now declared it...

they are still maintaining here that there is no problem.... they are more than worried that italians will stop eating chicken and eggs again... when the first bird flu alert/panic hit italy last year the whole popultaion almost apart from poultry farmers and health ministers stopped eating chicken... i dont know how the uk was affected but they are desperate here not to have the same thing happen..... again... hence i believe the assurities... based on commercial fears rather than actual knowledge...

in fact i would have no worries at all about chickens... or the eating of... the countries worst affected have been those with very poor hygiene standards and often not much real awareness i would think of the hazards involved of animal handling that they have done all their lives with no problems.... however i do find sickening the sight of hundreds of birds being dumped in bins and taken away by men in masks ... and hope that the same is not about to happen here...meanwhile in those areas affected like i say there is a quarantine area... most intensive around where the animals were found.. obviously...

i guess the problem is willd birds will not be reading the signs so they just have to keep a close watch.... luckily these migratory birds are heading from the extreme cold to the warmer areas at the moment .... so at this stage that migration is quite limited ... i think as the temps change the problems will be more from migratory habits of european species returning from africa where the disease is now taking hold as these birds seem to spread more in their migration habits... and i think the italian government has been preparing more for this eventuallity than the early arrival of the problem with these russian swans.... very hard to think that such graceful birds are being destroyed in this way....

i think in reply to the question of handling ... it has to be an intimate contact with the birds... although on the news they showed a mother and child feeding pigeons in a city centre... and i guess people will stop doing this now... all very sad really

[FONT="Book Antiqua"][SIZE="3"]If you are close to free range chickens don't worry.. my vet in the UK advises not actually handling poultry or other birds without gloves and was hands etc too use some disinfectant. If your neighbours give you eggs fine but be aware they may have got contaminated with chiken s..t in the nest box so I just wash mine in a bowl with soapy water.Not a bowl you use for eating or washing up!

If you do go into a chicken house or shed where chickens have been there may be skin scales etc in the air so best to avoid.Or use a mask.

I am thinking that I'm going to get condemed for scaremongering and thats fine. I still enjoy keeping free range poultry and eating their eggs...of course as we are all veggies they dont ever get the chop hence the average age in my flock is 8 years!!! Still laying eggs every day!!

If bird flu does get into our poultry it will be the free range ones that catch it first so its best to be alert and careful.

Becky[/SIZE][/FONT]

Is there any room in that fish bowel! Don't like Mackydees can I have Burger King instead :D

Ummmmmm have to think about that one........................have thought, ok but only if I can have a Burger King a Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich! Phew that was lucky nearly took thread off topic then!!!

Was that a deliberate spelling mistake, Trullo or a Feudian slip? I can tell you`re a nurse!!
Hazel

Oops! A real classic!!! :o Maybe I'm coming down with flu? Must keep thread on topic! ;) :D

[QUOTE=paula hampson]Have you got to be handling the chickens to catch anything, I know the three villa's near us all have chucks and apart from one they roam freely, luckily all fenced off securely.[/QUOTE]

Paula,

Vets near my partners parents (in the Scottish Highlands!) said that they'd have to cover their chicken area with a tarpaulin as even droppings from flying migrating birds could harm them. So off they went & just about managed to find one large enough. My mum at the other end of the country doesn't worry too much & lets hers roam around the garden. ;)

Not sure where reality ends & the scaremongering starts ... but it seems that it's finally arrived on our doorstep.

Stephanie

took a while to find this post again... but here we are...

its an interesting sort of phenomenom here that of all the countries with this problem in europe italy seems to be the only one...according to the news here where the consumption of chicken has fallen by around 70 %... for producers /transporters etc... its a disater here... in fact there was a family tradgedy a week or so ago where the father killed all his family... because he had got into such a state over no work....due to the lack of italian poultry eaters that he did this and then killed himself....

i dont know why this is happening only here... again ... according to italian news....

everyone is being told that italian poultry is safe.... and when street interviews are carried out everyone seems to be saying they are eating poultry still... so whats happening...the italian state has just got an eu grant of 100 million euro to help the farmers... and they have also been given a ten month tax break... so is it the fact that they are just saying this to get the grants...are the people on the street lying... or does nobody trust the italian poultry producers...

funny thing is italy in its attempts to get people buying italian is labelling all their food as the safest...with italian flags on...rather than buy from other eu states... is this backfiring...certainly with the eu commisioners...because its illegal to label food this way...

meanwhile we carry on eating poultry... is it only the foreigners living here that are keeping the italian poultry industry afloat...

Similar thing happened with the beef and that Spongybrainwotyacallit thingy.

No roast rib Sunday dinners.. no oxtail soup.. but people still ate McD's encraphalopathy.. 'twas enough to send anyone mad.. never mind the cows!

[COLOR="Blue"][I]"BIRD FLU: STORACE, FOR AID, 'MAD COW' PROVIDES PRECEDENT

(AGI) - Brussels, Feb. 20 - As support for national aid for the poultry sector, Minister Storace has in mind two precedents, that of the 'Mad Cow' disease and that of the dioxin emergency in Belgium. He was the one to explain this to journalists on his arrival in Brussels.

For the monthly meeting of Agriculture ministers of the EU, his presence was justified by the fact that the competence of veterinary checks are entrusted to the Health Ministry. "Italy is in a paradoxical situation", the minister said, "it doesn't have any animals infected and therefore, cannot benefit from state aid.

Italy doesn't have infected animals because its checks are effective, as recognized by the EU".

Problems come, instead, from the consumption crisis. According to Storace, to deal with the matter, "there are precedents in the 'Mad Cow' and dioxin crisis in Belgium, when the alarm for consumers was considered a reason to help the companies. If consumers are alarmed and this is the case in Italy, this must be a reason to help them". (AGI) ". [/I][/COLOR]

As you can see.. Aliena took little notice of the scaremongers.. and carried on chewing the cud..

Mooooo..

:) :)

[QUOTE=Aliena]Similar thing happened with the beef and that Spongybrainwotyacallit thingy.

No roast rib Sunday dinners.. no oxtail soup.. but people still ate McD's encraphalopathy.. 'twas enough to send anyone mad.. never mind the cows!
.......
Mooooo..

:) :)[/QUOTE]

Yup, too right... they had proven cases where they'd got it from eating burgers in certain establishments ... haven't come across anyone suing them though...:eek:

[QUOTE=Iona]Yup, too right... they had proven cases where they'd got it from eating burgers in certain establishments ... haven't come across anyone suing them though...[/QUOTE]
lona..

No one got sued 'cus they got that Spongybrainwotyacallit encraphalopathy thingy from eating McD's and probably couldn't do much about it!

I ate millions of McD's, so that explains a lot, but I have to ask.. did you eat one or two.. 'cus I got a word like encraphalopathy past the censorship button and it made me giggle. :D

Please don't shoot me.. everyone knows I'm mad and I couldn't resist trying it on. I promise I wont do it again and hope you have a laugh about it too.. :D

:) :)

It's not too much of a problem not eating chicken, but if all the chickens are destroyed and there are no eggs then an awful lot of what we eat will be off the menu. A real chicken and egg dilema!

A Bear, a Lion and a Chicken meet for a drink in the pub..

The Bear says "If I roar in the forest, the entire forest is shivering with fear."

The Lion says "If I roar in the Savannah the entire Savannah is afraid of me."

The Chicken says "Big Deal.. I only have to cough and the entire planet sh*ts itself!!"

[CENTER][ATTACH]142[/ATTACH][/CENTER]

:) :)