Bird Flu
[5 February 2007]
The first ever case of H5N1 in commercial poultry in Britain was found at a farm in
Suffolk yesterday. 160,000 turkeys were killed to contain the
outbreak of bird flu at the Bernard Matthews site near
Lowestoft.
It is believed that the H5N1 strain was similar to a case in
geese in Hungary in January.
DEFRA has established a protection zone of three kilometres
radius and a surveillance zone of 10 kilometres around the
premises: movement restrictions are imposed and poultry must be
kept isolated from wild birds.
The only rights of way affected by closures are those on the
infected farm.
A spokesperson from DEFRA said there is no reason for public
health concern or for access to the countryside to be greatly affected.
For
more information from DEFRA.
The Ramblers' Association accepts that, following individual
risk assessments, closing paths and public access may be
justified in some circumstances to reduce the risk of infection
spreading and we would urge all walkers to comply with any
restrictions. We have asked the authorities to ensure that in
such cases standard closure notices are used, and accurate
information is made available about closures on official
government websites.
The government response so far shows that lessons have been learned from the foot and mouth outbreak, where indiscriminate closures and lack of reliable information resulted in billions of pounds of losses to the countryside tourist industry as visitors stayed at home.
We will continue to monitor the situation and update this page as necessary.
More information
- BBC news website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk - Defra:
www.defra.gov.uk /animalh /diseases /notifiable /disease /ai - NHS Direct:
www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk /en.aspx?articleID=1565 - Ramblers' Association Response to the Government's Lessons Learned Enquiry on the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease Outbreak (PDF 28kB)