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Russia, Japan ban British poultry over bird flu
2007-02-05
Russia and Japan banned British poultry imports as Britain neared the end of a cull of 160,000 turkeys after the nation's first outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu in farmed poultry. Workers wearing white protective suits, black gloves and masks loaded the turkeys into crates to be gassed following the discovery of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of avian flu on a farm at Holton in eastern England run by Europe's largest turkey producer, Bernard Matthews. Environment Secretary David Miliband told parliament the cull should be finished later on Monday. Veterinary experts were investigating the source of the infection, Miliband said, adding it was most likely to have come from wild birds. "The risk to the general public is judged by health experts to be negligible," Miliband said, adding that properly cooked poultry and eggs were safe. The outbreak had an immediate impact on Britain's poultry industry, the second largest in the European Union after France. Russian officials said Moscow would ban British poultry imports from Tuesday to prevent the spread of bird flu. Japan also banned British poultry imports while Ireland barred the import of poultry from Britain for "gatherings and shows." But sales of poultry in Britain were holding up. "The biggest threat to the poultry industry is not avian influenza. It is a backlash from consumers," said free range poultry farmer John Widdowson, adding that consumers appeared to have reacted calmly to the outbreak. "Every day that goes by with no further outbreak we become more confident it is under control," he added. SALES HOLDING UP Britain's leading supermarket chains, Tesco, Sainsbury, Wal-Mart Stores subsidiary ASDA and WM Morrison all reported sales were bearing up well. Consumers in Europe's top poultry producing country, France, reacted more sharply to an outbreak last year with sales plunging more than 30 percent after the H5N1 virus was found on a turkey farm in February. They did not recover until mid-year. The European Union's top health official said he was optimistic the bloc would be able to control bird flu this year despite outbreaks of the H5N1 strain in Britain and Hungary. But EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Markos Kyprianou added: "The virus is still around. We should never feel that we are safe." The H5N1 virus has spread into the Middle East, Africa and Europe since it reemerged in Asia in 2003 and outbreaks have now been detected in birds in around 50 countries. It remains largely an animal disease, but can kill people who come into close contact with infected birds. It has killed 165 people over the past four years, a 22-year-old woman in Nigeria being the latest confirmed victim. Sixty-three people have been killed in Indonesia, the country worst affected. Scientists fear the virus could spark a pandemic in which millions die if it mutates into a form that passes easily from person to person. Many countries are testing plans to deal with a flu pandemic should the virus develop into a more dangerous form. Japan, which has had four outbreaks of H5N1 at poultry farms this year but no human cases, held a drill on Monday to test its preparations. (Additional reporting by Rachel Sanderson and Nigel Hunt in London, Paul Hoskins in Dublin, Aleksandras Budrys in Moscow, Jeremy Smith in Brussels)
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