Cases in Dorset, Devon and Conwy too![]()
One of my near neighbors has not put his under cover at all which is worrying.
Apologies if I've missed reading it somewhere, but does anyone know the incubation period? Would these backyard birds have caught it prior to the restrictions, or is this an example of someone not following protocol?
I have been talking to someone who knows a great deal about the poultry industry worldwide and he says there is no answer to the current situation and that keeping birds inside for a few weeks/months makes no difference at all. He says we need to stop having free range commercial flocks altogether and that it will never be possible to contain disease the way that the uk is heading with more and more demand for free range eggs and chickens. He also says the welfare of birds being kept inside is higher but for PR purposes the public think the opposite. He says sooner or later the industry is going to have to go public with this opinion.
I am lucky, noone near me keeps birds but if they did, and had made no effort I would be fuming. Grapevine has it that the ones in Settle were not contained.
I want to know what's going to happen at the end of February. What is the criterion for lifting the ban?
After 90 days eggs and poultry will not be able to be sold as free range ( not that they actually are at the moment....I find this misrepresentation) but the migratory birds will be coming back....so lifting the ban would be rather negligent.
He is talking *******s! (About the welfare).
I haven't yet got my head around the shutting up of poultry, or how it will in any way prevent or even slow down the spread of Avian Bird Flu.
When the disease is prevalent in and spread by and through the wild bird population, a population over which we have no control, just how enclosing poultry will make any difference, at all, is beyond me. If it was a problem within domestic poultry, then preventing it (or attempting to) from spreading to wild birds would make sense, but as the disease is amongst our wild bird population, the orders handed down are a pointless knee-jerk reaction and are in place in an effort to convince us that DEFRA are on the ball, which we all know, they aren't!
As for the cry to stop shooting, what earthly difference does anyone think that such a decree will make to the spread of the disease?
Alec.