BIRD FLUE;Who is to blame for the UK Turkey Farm Infection ?

Question

Bernard Matthews Farm
were infected by this devastating bird -flue

Has any body got any theories,
as to how this disease could have arrived here ?

Naturaly , from wild bird droppings
accidentally from imported contaminated turkey carcases
or was it deliberately seeded,
by terroris action , or even a disgruntled ex worker .
into the one infected house of growing birds ,

Can any body throw some light on this mystery ?

Hmmmmm...
Some very interesting answers

Who flu over the coo-coos nest LOL!

sorry my mistake FLU .......

Answer 1

Much as I admire the capitalist system,this time greed passed common sense and safety

Both Bernard Mathews and DEFRA knew there was this strain if bird flu in Hungary-so why buy and why allow imports?

We certainly cull our own livestock at various outbreaks-and understand when good friends like the Dutch and the Scandnavians ban our exports

Yes,it could have been a passing bird;but it would be more widespread-not one shed!

I agree that there should be no panic but the concern with viral infections is that they continue to adapt to whatever environment they find(mutating) and all must be done to reduce chances of crossover to humans-it could mutate again.

THIS HAS HAPPENED WITH OTHER FLU INFECTIONS WITH DEVASTATING RESULTS

Answer 2

i don't know who is to blame but one thing that I do find suspicious is that it is NOT the first time that the country has had this strain of the bird flu.... the UK also had it in 1991 and i am sure there wasn't this much publicity about it back then as I never even heard of it..

..When it all arose again last year, I was led to believe that this was a brand new virus that had mutated recently but this is not true... it has obviously been around for many years now... making me think that the Government are using this story a lot to cover up their corrupt dealings (e.g. this whole cash for honours thing) and who knows what else?!?.

Doesn't really answer your question I'm afraid but thought it was worth a mention...

Answer 3

Bernard Mathews. He has allowed many, many safety infringements at his plant.
He has lied about how the place is run for years. His worker have been prosecuted and sentenced for obscene cruelty, ( IE playing baseball with live turkeys as the ball ) An RSPCA inspector said it was the worst case of cruelty to farm animals he had heard of and added that the poultry industry was under pressure to improve welfare standards.
http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1752456 all thay got was community service.
We know, or are told, that the turkeys were kept in sealed sheds where even the air they breath is regulated, so how would infection from a migrant wild bird get to them?
If there was nothing wrong with the transport of staff and turkeys betwwn Hungary and the UK why did they say catagorically tis was not happening. when a few days later film was shown of the lorries going between the two plants.
Why lie if you have nothing to hide.
Evil man evil industry

Answer 4

if it came from migrating birds then I doubt very much it would have been discovered in just one shed - which coincidentally has links to Hungary where the same strain of bird flu has been found. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what's happened here...
Sallyanni... As for the overuse of antibiotics creating what you call superbugs - in this case you're so wrong, Flu is a virus -antibiotics have no effect on viruses, you need antivirals for that!
To fight flu we make vaccines which stimulate the bodies own immune system to give it a head start for if/when you get infected. The flu virus mutates naturally and different strains are more prevalent each year, so each year the strains used to make the vaccines have to be changed.

Answer 5

I think that the bird flu came from the plant in Hungary. Bernard Matthews hates to admit it, but all the evidence points to it.
If the migration of wild birds is the cause, this excuse for a government should initiate a protection scheme: gun emplacements all around the east coast is the answer, shooting down any avian intruder just in case it has the flu. The odd easyJet carrying eastern Europeans would also be a legitimate target.

Answer 6

Some turkey meat importer or other, out of greed to feed it to us as processed muck. Got the stuff cheap in Romania, where infections sent the meat price falling. Thought we wouldn't read the packet labels, as it did say it was booooooooooootiful, surely enough to get anyone to buy any old rubbish, like we'd done with the twizzla's.

Then expected the UK taxpayer to pay for the dead birds. Yeh, like we were stupid enough to buy the so called 'meat' in the first place and then want to make some business fatter still by compensating it for its own ignorant - malicious? - import actions. And when it knew it could have been bringing the virus into its industrial scale plants, ready to mix it all up and feed it to us. Probably as British 'prepared' turkey, or some other euphemism.

Don't eat rubbish. Become a wiser consumer.

Answer 7

Bernard Matthews's lack of proper health and hygiene procedures.
According to news reports, waste from the contaminated carcasses was left out of doors in open bin bags, and wild birds have been seen taking meat from them.

The live turkeys are suspected to have been infected by contact with wild birds and vermin which had been rifling the bins. The turkeys' accommodation has gaps which are large enough to admit , 'rodents and small birds'.

Answer 8

Inadvertently Bernard Matthews is to blame for bringing in turkeys carrying the flu (note a bird fluE is part of its anatomy), though he was doing nothing illegal - so that part is bad luck and a little stupidity for thinking Hugarian birds were still 100% OK.

But the crappy conditions (literally) at Holton caused the spread. This is because the birds are reared in such horrible conditions, and this is because we want cheap turkey.

So, it's our fault - or at least the shoppers who buy BM and other mass produced cheap meat.

Answer 9

It's hard to apportion "blame" as it's a virus. Who do we blame for the human flu epidemics that we get every year? Nobody. If you keep 160,000 birds cooped up together and one of them somehow goes down with the flu there's not much you can do about it. It's an inevitable consequence of factory farming, and the only reason it was so controversial is that bird flu is very "in" at the moment with the media.

Answer 10

Why is their always someone to blame? Bird flu was always going to end up here doesnt matter if we banned imports or not. Its BIRD flu correct me if im wrong but don't they fly? And birds fly in and out of this country all the time. I mean the first trace of it was dead swan in Aberdeen or some place in Scotland so should we blame Scotland lol i don't think so, so fact is it was going to come in whatever we did. Its natural and you can't stop nature. I mean with the terrorist thing i think that is stupid, its got a low kill ratio and it could spread to their own country where ever that may be. So not terrorist, Flu's come up all the time they just get more advanced and become smarter, theirs no conspiricy here and their is certinly no-one to blame, you just want someone to blame.