We are now nearly at the end of yet another year so readers are entitled, amongst other things, to hear some good news. The risk of Avian Influenza Virus is now so minimal that it barely exists. The next period of risk will be during the spring when the new immigration of waterfowl from infected countries occurs. Although we will all be on our guard, as we are each year, there is no real reason to become paranoid about it. We do not and cannot as yet know what subtype and whether it will be of low pathogenicity or high.
In 2003 Holland suffered from a different subtype H7N7 which unfortunately for their industry their officials demonstrated their complete inefficiency when it came to control. Unfortunately we are saddled with Defra who together with some of their stock holders seem to lack similar expertise. Rest assured that AIV, which has been around for over 100 years, has rarely visited our shores, and even when it has, it has been successfully contained within a very small area.
I see that the department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs have admitted that a mix-up occurred in samples taken from a quarantine centre where several finches died. The suspected imported parrot may not have been the bird which started the outbreak of H5N1 as it now appears that the finch-like Mesias imported from Taiwan were the problem with 53 dying out of a total of 101. The encouraging and most important thing to come out of all this, which seems to have been taken on board by the media is that Mr Bradshaw, the Animal and Welfare Minister, has recognised that although his department has assumed, based on evidence, that wild birds spread this disease over long distances, admitted that we don't have any proof yet that wild birds infect poultry with this highly pathogenic strain.
Given the fact that these finches had this strain in very close confinement with all the other birds, including chickens, none of those birds became infected. He, Mr Bradshaw, thought that this fact alone would be found to be pretty significant around the world.
There were only 26 isolates of Salmonella enteritidis in 2004, compared with 61 in 2003 and none were associated with human incidents. However, there was a rise in non-PT4 isolates in England and Wales, most related to eggs not of UK origin. It is therefore difficult to understand why the multi-nationals still insist on purchasing eggs from other European countries, when we have a surplus of eggs from two million layers. They obviously are more interested in cheap food and high profit margins than any consideration for the health of their customers and UK egg producers whose eggs are superior in quality and disease free, much the same as continuing to buy beef from countries where Foot and Mouth is endemic, placing the British farmer at an even greater risk. We all know what happened last time.
