Three dead swans in Dorset had Bird Flu January 10, 2008
Posted by Andy Roberts in : wildlife, Bird Flu, UK , add a comment
Join the RSPBThe Swannery at Abbotsbury, down on the South Dorset coast has been hit by the deadly H5N1 virus which causes Bird Flu, with three dead swans testing positive for the deadly disease.
This latest case is worrying because it suggests that infection may be originating in wild birds, whereas the outbreak at the Bernard Matthews turkey factory in Suffolk last year looked more like human error with contaminated trucks or feed.
Indeed, the only reason for not beginning a cull of wild birds in the area is given as “because such a move could disperse birds and spread the disease.” according to Guardian News this afternoon
Bird Flu is back November 13, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu , 1 comment so farBird flu is back in the UK with 6,000 turkeys geese and ducks slaughtered at a factory farm near Diss in Norfolk, not that far away from the Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Suffolk which contracted bird flu earlier this year. Tests will reveal later today whether or not this is the same H5N1 strain which can be fatal to humans, although preliminary tests have already narrowed down to the H5 family.
As with last time, suspicion may initially fall on wild birds rather than on Bernard Matthews eastern European connections and poor biosecurity but the RSPB have explained that no wild birds have been found with avian flu anywhere in Europe since August this year and that the annual autumn migration of wild swans and geese is now almost over.
For the latest news keep an eye on Warmwell/h5n1
The actual farm this time is Redgrave Farm, which is run by Redgrave Poultry, part of the Gressingham foods group.
Update: See also January 2008 - Bird flu detected in three dead swans
Flu bloggers validated June 18, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu, blogs and community , 3commentsVia Nancy White a report that seems to show how ‘flu bloggers’ are making a difference over in America:
Spare Change: HHS Flu Blog Success?
We’ve got a clear clarion call from the Secretary of HHS, to go forth into our communities and spread the pandemic awareness message. We’ve been validated, at least unofficially, as being partners in the national effort to prepare for a pandemic. And our voices, for the first time, have been heard on this issue.
In case you hadn’t gathered, the flu bloggers are on a mission. The general apathy about this burning issue is blamed on the Media, Government and public. The story, so it goes, just isn’t exciting enough at this stage:
It often moves at a glacier pace, much of the `action’ occurs in remote areas of the world where few reporters have access, and with the exception of a few dedicated flubies, most of the public simply doesn’t care about the latest genetic sequences or the seroprevalence studies on cats in Jakarta.
It’s a bit like 1999 when billions of people around the world failed to dig their own bunkers, stock up on cans of beans and guns to defend against looters in preparation for the inevitable barbarism that would follow Y2K. Outside of the United States we just don’t seem to have that ‘circle the wagons’ mentality.
Compensation is only for the rich April 22, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu, UK , add a commentOn Thursday night the Government confirmed that Bernard Matthews will be paid almost £600,000 in compensation following the outbreak of bird flu at its Suffolk farm.
Norman Lamb, North Norfolk MP, said the real losers were the workers who were still to get their jobs back. He said: “Many people will struggle with the idea that the company gets compensation, although it is a small amount compared with the drop in sales. But for the workers, the people in the front line of this, not to get anything, is hard to justify.
A flock of geese March 17, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu, Long Tail, online facilitation, blogs and community, politics , 6comments
Stephen Downes argues that the following statement is invalid:
“The flock of geese decided to land”
What in fact happened is that each individual goose decided to land. We observed this and interpreted it as the flock deciding to land.
photo under CC licence by glennharvey06
What a wonderfully clear example the flock of geese idea gives us to try and think about this clash of perspectives which has been rumbling along about individuals and groups, blog networks compared to listserves, the illusion of flat hierarchies, left right, north south, hive mind or cooercion and so on. It might just be me, but the geese question seems to point at something which may turn out to be a central and fundamental issue, like the difference between the naturalistic worldview and idealism.
So I will argue that the flock of geese did decide to land. {{ducks}}
Maybe one goose made the first move towards landing, or maybe the trajectory emerged from out of whatever was going on between the flock beforehand, but what happened next is a process which I would call ‘arriving at a group decision’. One or more individual geese began to move towards landing in such a way that the intention to land began to be communicated through the flock. Each individual goose then took a decision to follow the leaders, or ignore them. I’ve observed occasions when this results in a cleaving of the flock, with one part landing and another group splitting away to circle around and land in the next field, for example. Now, some individuals may be motivated by the desire to land, and others by a preference to stay with the group who are landing, that doesn’t matter. Nobody said it has to be one goose one vote in a secret ballot. The decision can be swayed by acts of leadership, by an averaging of cumulative actions, or by random events but a decision is what is arrived at by the flock in just the same way as the various parts of my own brain somehow come to a conclusion as to which shirt I will put on in the morning.
The reason why all of this is important, is because sometimes groups can do things which sums of individuals cannot, like negotiating decent pay and conditions through collective bargaining for example. In that case, the individuals within the syndicate need to be willing to subject themselves to a group discipline in order to take effect action without splitting. There has to be a mechanism to take a group decision which is binding on individuals in order for the individuals involved to benefit from collective action.
That’s why the emphasis on individual networks rather than groups disturbs me, it’s all too reminiscent of Mrs Thatchers’ “There is no such thing as society, there are individuals and there are families”. Networks seem to have the effect of exaggerating inequality as already stronger nodes attract new connections faster than weaker ones. Is that the effect we wish to take an active decision to cultivate or should we make positive choices to nurture alternative patterns with greater long term sustainability?
Well Stephen is a skillful and knowledgable philosopher so I expect he will tear my proposition apart if he ever reads it, but if anything remains it can only help to clarify somebody’s thinking, somewhere - like mine perhaps.
Futures market created for bird flu March 1, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu , add a commentPredictive markets are a way of obtaining “wisdom of crowds” type knowledge, aggregating the opinions of multiple experts and concentrating the mind of each through requiring the backing of individual opinions with hard cash. As external conditions change, the proclivity of individuals to buy or sell can be averaged through a market to determine a price, which is claimed to be a remarkably accurate indicator of real probability.
Futures market created for bird flu
Organizers hope to recruit at least 100 epidemiologists, veterinarians and other medical experts from around the world for the two-year project. They will be asked to join an online trading system akin to agricultural futures markets, in which investor buys contracts that businesses will be able to deliver certain volumes of, say, corn or pork bellies.
But in this project, the contracts represent not the likelihood of a good corn harvest but the odds that deadly bird flu will infect a human in Hong Kong by July 1.
“Yes” contracts on that prediction are currently trading at 43 cents. That means the experts think there’s a 43 percent chance of that occurring.
Bernard Mathews food scare February 17, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu, UK , 2commentsA local pub, The Golden Fleece has a new sign up behind the bar which reassures restaurant customers that no Bernard Mathews products are used in their kitchen.
Funny how a couple of weeks ago the giant turkey factory was being praised for its tight biosecurity, but now the facts are coming out and the damage limitation excercise is looking very shaky.
Incredibly, it now seems that the company had been importing turkey meat from nearby the bird flu outbreak in Hungary, and then leaving bits of it around in the open air, right next to the largest concentration of turkey rearing sheds in Europe.
TimesOnline
Matthews could be prosecuted over hygiene at bird flu factory
Bernard Matthews could face prosecution over sloppy biosecurity at the Holton factory in Suffolk where the avian flu virus infected turkey chicks and 160,000 birds had to be destroyed.
…
Problems with gulls feeding from open waste bins was first raised with Bernard Matthews management last year by its own firm of pest controllers. They had also identified holes and openings in rearing sheds that could easily allow a bird or a rodent to mix with chicks and for water or bird droppings to get into enclosed units.Meat Hygiene Service records also reveal that inspectors issued warnings about a range of “deficiencies and noncompliance”. Though not specified, they are also related to possible breaches of animal byproduct regulations.
Bernard Matthews was served another warning last month about problems on the site. Pest control reports on January 10 and January 24 noted that gulls were carrying meat scraps half a kilometre away and then roosting on the top of the farm sheds. Poly-thene bags containing meat products and residual liquids were also thrown into the open bins and were easily blown across the site. Birds or rats may also have infected wood shavings that are stored outdoors and used to refresh bedding inside the sheds.
Bernard Matthews loses sales | Telegraph
One of the biggest ongoing surveys of consumer confidence yesterday revealed that Bernard Matthews was now the least respected and trusted brand in Britain.
Whilst extending sympathy for the plight of portuguese TGWU members in East Anglia, it really couldn’t have happened to a nicer brand - Bernard Mathews - the people who created the market for feeding schoolchildren with disgusting cheap junk food in the shape of golden drummers, turkey dinosaurs, and twizzlers.
Turkey Ham? February 10, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu, UK , 5commentsWhat is Turkey Ham?
When I wrote on Monday 5th ( Wild birds not to blame ) about the Lorries from Hungary, mainstream media were still reporting the sparrow through the ventilation shaft story, and the Bernard Mathews offcial line seemed to be that the outbreak of H5N1 in Hungary was not connected in any way. “All our birds are British,” he said. “The fact that we have a Hungarian operation is immaterial”
Now the truth is beginning to emerge .
Bernard Matthews, Britain’s largest turkey producer, imports 37 tonnes of partly-processed turkey meat from Hungary every week
And now the Telegraph reports
Supermarkets are facing a possible nationwide recall of processed turkey products in an attempt to halt the spread of bird flu.
What are processed turkey products?
From Is Bernard Matthews stuffed?
He invented the “self-basting” Golden Norfolk Turkey, to address the bird’s tendency to produce dried-out meat. And he followed that over the next two decades with products rejoicing in names such as Turkey Breast Roast, Turkey Fillets, Crispy Crumb Turkey Steaks, Golden Drummers, Mini Kievs and - dubious though middle-class parents may have found it - the UK’s first shaped poultry product for children, Turkey Dinosaurs.
….Turkey Twizzlers - became the object of the chef Jamie Oliver’s scorn. He singled them out for criticism in his campaign to improve the nation’s school dinners in his television series Jamie’s School Dinners. The product, in which processed turkey was combined with pork fat, contained - Oliver complained - outrageously unhealthy levels of saturated fat. The firm dropped the product, a move that coincided with a £13m drop in operating profits.
Bernard Matthews is the No 1 brand of cooked meats in the UK - one pack of its Wafer Thin Turkey Ham is sold every second, perhaps as a low calorie or cheap alternative to real ham.
What is turkey ham made from? Well it turns out that is does contain some turkey, but no pork meat. There is a cow product though, about one third water, and far too much salt. Ingredients:
“turkey (60%), water, salt, stabilisers, potato & rice starch, milk protein, dextrose, whey protein, flavouring, antioxidant, acidity regulator, flavouring, preservative, yeast extract, garlic” So that’s what turkey ham is made from.
Wild birds not to blame February 5, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu, UK , 1 comment so farCircumstantial evidence points to bird flu spreading along transport routes of international trade rather than from migrating birds. Locals in the Suffolk town near the Bernard Mathews turkey factory report many Hungarian lorries going in and out in the past weeks. There was an outbreak of H5N1 in Hungary recently, where Bernard Mathews owns another poultry business.
UK bird flu outbreak matches Hungary case - World - smh.com.au
The Government confirmed the virus - identified in a turkey shed at the Bernard Matthews food business, on Friday - was the same strain found last month in geese on a farm in Hungary.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on Sunday it was investigating the movement of people and animals at the farm, including any links the farm could have had with Hungary, where Mr Matthews owns Saga Foods.
So for the third time in recent living memory the spread of terrible animal diseases is most likely to be linked to intensive factory farming methods, the treatment of animals as commodities for long distance markets and the relentless drive to reduce production costs in order to maintain profitability. No need to kill all the wild birds then.
Trade barriers start to go up February 5, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Bird Flu, UK , add a commentHere we go again - just like with BSE (mad cow disease) in the 90s and the more recent foot and mouth outbreak, some countries can’t wait to jump at the opportunity to start erecting non-tariff trade barriers.
Russia, Japan ban British poultry over bird flu - washingtonpost.com
Russians officials said Moscow would ban British poultry imports from Tuesday to prevent the spread of bird flu. Japan also banned British poultry imports while Ireland barred the import of poultry from Britain for “gatherings and shows.”
Thanks for reading Andy Roberts articles about Bird Flu
on Darnet
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