This month I open up the notes with the question, 'What do you know about Genetically Modified crops?'
If your level of knowledge on the subject is anything like mine the answer is probably 'not a lot'. My reason for asking the question was inspired by some cuttings taken from one of the better national dailys and sent down, via our secretary, by our regular correspondent up in Glasgow, a fancier who, unlike some folk likes to keep his finger on the pulse and his mind open to what is going on in the world around him.
We are probably all well aware that for better or worse, by and large, the population has rejected the use of GM crops. Whatever the rights or wrongs of the project the wholesale rejection is I suspect as much a result of the lack of constructive, readily-digestible information and facts as it is the non-acceptance of the politically contrived mumbo-jumbo that ultimately fools no one and alienates everyone.
The real worries should surely lie within the potential and considerably more worrying scientific aspects of the issue. The popular common sense reaction is apparently one of 'if I don't know what effects it may have I am not prepared to accept it (for commercial use)'.
The trouble with our modern politicians, of all persuasions, is that they are so enamoured with their own spin that they now appear increasingly incapable of telling us voters the truth any more, but then when did they ever?
But, back to GM crops.
We may not, at least knowingly, be putting too much of it into our own bodies, but do we know whether we are feeding any of the stuff to our birds? I certainly have no idea whether the suppliers of the corn I use include GM seeds in their mixes, sadly I am not sure whether they would tell us the truth even if we asked.
Should we be concerned, after all surely good clean corn is just good clean corn, isn't it? I know of at least three recent cases where the deaths in pigeon flocks, after post mortem examination, have been shown to be due to the sudden failure of major organs, notably the liver. In the press cuttings sent down was a very clear statement that experiments on rats proved conclusively that after being fed GM foods the rats developed major problems, yes, you have guessed correctly - those problems were almost always centered around liver damage.
Coincidence? I realise of course that the two issues may not be directly or even indirectly related at all but it certainly gives food for thought and maybe cause for concern.
As I have been discussing in these notes over several issues now the ugly head of Avian Influenza, though still distant, is apparently still creeping ever closer to these shores. The latest item of radio and printed news indicates that our European neighbours from just over the water in Holland and in parts of Germany are already proposing stringent rules aimed at attempting to try at least contain this latest scourge.
How long it takes to change from being a threat into reality is anyone's guess, just keep your fingers crossed and that we are lucky and evade the problem. The NPA via a small sub-committee in communication with DEFRA, is trying to keep tabs on the issue. I know that any details, as and when known, will be transmitted to the Fancy. It would appear that the whole matter is in some quarters now causing a considerable degree of controversy.
The majority of us can only base our response to any health threat based around what, rightly or wrongly, we are being told. Whatever the truth finally turns out to be I think it would be remiss of us to bury it under the carpet at this stage. I must admit that I would far rather it be a false alarm than to be caught with our proverbial trousers down.
As if the possible scourges of AI, YBS and PMV are insufficient to cause us to have a few more wrinkles on our already well furrowed brows I have been in communication with one of our better and more successful fanciers who has recently been experiencing an abnormal amount of fatalities within his very high-class stud.
Being a wise man he sent off a number of live pigeons from within his stricken lofts for laboratory testing. All came back with the same readings. All, quite surprisingly, were diagnosed as suffering from the effects of Chlamydia, a fungal infection. I know at first hand the devastation that fungal infections can cause.
Many years ago I lost almost my entire stud of white Long Faced Tumblers to an airborne fungus being thrown up by combine harvesters whilst cutting overly damp wheat in the fields at the rear of my garden. The winds did the rest by carrying the minute spores straight in to my lofts.
As many of the problems that strike our flocks can display very similar symptoms this fancier's actions once again proved the value of getting the experts' knowledge of what is affecting your birds before you start dosing them with a course of whatever you happen to have in the medicine chest. It must always be remembered that, by and large, medicines are designed to treat specific problems.
The common but very unsound 'one bottle cure for everything' attitude may well, long term, prove to be the undoing of many studs.
