Re: AI vaccination approved for EU


"Mary Fisher" <mary.fisher@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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" Jill" <newsNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Times OnlineFebruary 22, 2006
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2052776,00.html
EU approves limited bird flu vaccination By Simon Freeman
European vets today gave approval to controversial applications from
France and the Netherlands to vaccinate selected poultry flocks against
avian flu, a ruling with profound implications for the rest of the EU.
After two days of heated talks the European Commission, the EU's
executive
body, agreed to the requests with a series of conditions.
"The vaccination programmes are authorised only for specific birds in
specified regions, and will be subject to rigorous surveillance and
control requirements," the Commission said in a statement from Brussels.
"These include movement restrictions, strict monitoring of vaccinated
flocks to ensure that there is no undetected outbreak of avian
influenza,
and careful record-keeping."
The move signifies an important ratcheting-up in the Continent's disease
control. Under European law, any vaccinated birds would face
restrictions
on movement which would prevent export and allow them only to be
transported to a slaughterhouse.
The French and Dutch proposals were the first of their kind to be
submitted to Brussels and are aimed at preventing bird flu spreading
from
wild migratory birds to domestic fowl.
Britain continues to oppose the vaccination programme on grounds of both
cost and effectiveness, as do Germany, Austria, Denmark and Portugal.
Vaccinated birds could incubate the disease without showing symptoms,
allowing low-level spread among flocks and increasing the likelihood of
its mutation into a form transmissible to people.
The sense of urgency was heightened today as Austria reported the EU's
first cases of the lethal H5N1 strain in domestic fowl rather than wild
birds.
The regional agriculture minister revealed that a swan, two chickens and
three ducks had been found carrying the virus at a sanctuary in the
southern city of Graz.
It was reported that the rescue fowl had been kept in the same cage as
infected swans brought to the Noah's Ark shelter for abandoned animals
following an outbreak last week.
Slovakia yesterday became the eighth EU member state to confirm the
presence of bird flu in migrating fowl. It joins Italy, Greece, France,
Slovenia, Austria, Germany and Hungary as states where the H5N1 strain
has
been detected.
France wants to inoculate some 900,000 geese and ducks in three
districts
in a £500,000 programme that would start immediately and continue until
April.
The Netherlands - devastated in 2003 by an H7N7 bird flu outbreak that
forced the slaughter of a quarter of its agricultural fowl - is looking
to
vaccinate five million backyard birds and free-range laying hens
nationwide.
The Dutch plan would be conducted on a voluntary basis as an alternative
to demands that poultry be kept indoors.
More than 90 people have died from bird flu in Asia, Iraq and eastern
Turkey since 2003 after contracting the potentially lethal H5N1 strain
from infected poultry but no human infections have been reported in
Europe.


But as I heard it, the UK government isn't convinced about the efficacy of
vaccination.

Heigh ho ... they're probably using the 'best scientific advice' ...
Their chief vet, who's prime concern should be animal welfare, is IMO
listing to the government's concerns about export, trade and money. AFter
all we know that this government is more concerned about money that the
lives and feelings of small scale poultry producers or pet poultry
keepers/exhibitors and the like.
Perhaps there is some way small scale poultry keepers could band together
and force the government to allow us to vaccinate our flocks since we do not
export our birds and trade would not therefore be affected?
There are enough of us to force the government to listen to us, surely?
Wholesale slaughter may be all very well for the huge egg producers and
table bird producers. They have no emotional attachment to their stock, the
compensation will mean they can easily restock, whereas those of us with
rare breeds, and other birds will no doubt not get the true value of the
bird in compensation and in any case could we restock given that I may be
one of only a handful of people int he country with this particular
breed/colour? What about precious lines, carefully bred for for decades?
Perhaps we should be lobbying our MP's to allow us to vaccinate even if it
means the commercially produced birds and the like don't have vaccination.


.

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