Apparently the outbreak in Britain of H5N1 Avian Flu was caused by the turkey farm importing turkey from their Hungarian factory farm to their British factory farm:
Dr. David Nabarro said investigators looking into the cause of a bird flu outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Britain are now focusing on a possible link with the transfer of partly processed birds from a farm in southeastern Hungary where there was an outbreak last month. Britain’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said preliminary inquiries indicated the strain of H5N1 bird flu found at the British farm was identical to the strain found last month in Hungary. Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said the government was investigating whether there were “bio-security breaches” at the British farm, owned by Bernard Matthews PLC, Europe’s biggest turkey producer.
-APNews
The USDA’s National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is all about making it easier for Big-Ag to import and export paid for by tax payers. Big-Ag gets exemptions and GroupIDs without the requirement to do tagging while burdening small farmers with individual animal tagging and tracking. NAIS is not about disease, it is about corporate welfare.
Why do you suppose they were transferring ‘partly processed’ birds, and what exactly does ‘partly processed’ mean?
That may be totally irrelevant to the issue, of course, and we may seriously NOT want to know the answer to the questions, but I have always had a pathological curiosity.
And I’m testing the spambot thing again, too - again a sum in only one digit.
Comment Lynn — February 10, 2007 @ 9:16 pm
test of dypm
Comment Steven Herod — February 10, 2007 @ 9:43 pm
what does “partly processed” birds mean ?
[It could be birds that are partially grown or it might be birds that have been slaughtered but not fully processed for sale. e.g., eviscerated, plucked, quartered, skinned, etc. -WJ]
Comment GinnyP — February 10, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
If anyone ever doubted that the USDA(Un-american System to Destroy our Agriculture)was out to wreck our way of life I would hope some where deep in the recesses of their minds they would begin to understand that this govt arm needs serious surgury,such as amputation,to fix it,it is full of rot and pus,poisoned to the very marrow,there is no hope of saving it;it must be removed.NAIS is being sold to the people as a cure to animal diseases,while our borders are wide open to garbage from anywhere and everywhere,mmmmmm,deep fried chicken,fresh from china,coming to a big box store near you,soon the American chicken farmer will be bankrupt,unable to compete with the cheap imports from china,reports will filter in of americans(meat cutters) sneaking into china to do the jobs chinese people won’t do,soon Tyson and others will announce they have to move all operations over there to be able to compete,after all all the workers are over there.Micky D’s will have a sale on chicky strips and nuggets and the average sheeple will eat it up,hurray for the govicorp,they make sure we have a (cheap and safe?) food supply in this great land,soon America will be dependent on the third world to eat ,soon an “accidental”? disease epidemic will sweep the land, but “never fear” USDA has a plan to save us all,they have contracts with big pharma, they have the cure, hurray,we’re saved! sheesh!I pray we can outlast these fools,until the rot consumes them,or we can cut it off at the root.
Comment LEE — February 11, 2007 @ 10:31 am
Bernard Matthews Corp is a huge corporation. Not some poor farmer as the papers would have you believe. It spans Europe. I said from the beginning that the Hungarian incident was related.
Ordinary people on the BBC site commenting on the bird flu incident said were saying that a lot of hatching went on in Hungary and the birds were finished in Britain. The papers are saying the turkeys were about 8 weeks old. You can almost count it back.
Interesting comment from my state vet, Crawford, mentioned to him out in the hall that I suspected a truck slipping through rather than a little bird and he said, “Oh no doubt!”
Comment Sue F — February 11, 2007 @ 3:17 pm
link
Comments from Britain and other EU countries on the bird flu flap. Makes for interesting reading. The Hungarian connection showed up here long before the media got it.
Comment Sue F — February 12, 2007 @ 2:45 am
I tried to buy some locally grown beef. The farmer had raised more and was sold out. Taking orders for next fall. I really don’t want to buy partially processed anything from overseas.
[Something that helps the farmer plan is if you let him know you are interested and you put a binder down for a half or quarter, etc. Then he knows for sure it is worth raising more and can plan for it. Beef is one of the harder animals since they take so long to grow to market size. Another thing you can do that helps is find another buyer, a friend, co-worker, etc, who can go in with you upping from a quarter to a half or half to a whole animal. Most farmers offer a discount for larger purchases. For example, we do $225 for a half pig but a whole pig is only $350. -WalterJ]
Comment gordon — February 13, 2007 @ 3:04 pm
Hi all, it’s probably here somewhere but I can’t find it, check out the OCA article on bird flu “It’s about time they figured it out…”
link pretty good article except it says bacteria “evolve” (said by WHO, no surprise there..) anyway mutate, or “devolve” is the correct term. but that’s another story.
God bless all of you and I’m with LEE (2-11-07), couldn’tof said it betterfaster.
Keep up the food fight.
Terri
Comment Terri Dawson — February 24, 2007 @ 12:44 am