Avian flu, deja vu

It was disturbing to hear of the news of an outbreak of Avian Influenza in East Yorkshire on yesterday’s BBC Radio 4 Today programme – there is a well rehearsed process for alerting the network of organisations, including us, in the event of a confirmed outbreak. But our notification did arrive later in the day.

In any event – it soon became clear that Monday would be busy in terms of media interest in the story and we would be drawn in not least because, from the start, official statements were implicating the movement of wild birds in the outbreak.

That all birds can catch bird flu is true ... that the disease can travel along with populations of wild birds is also beyond doubt, but slack assumptions about the cause of any outbreak before the facts are known is unhelpful  and is a flame that is fanned by lazy journalism.

I dashed to the BBC studio in Cambridge yesterday evening, welcoming the opportunity to address the frankly unlikely idea that ‘swans from the east’ brought the virus to a commercial duck flock housed in a barn 24/7. The lessons from the outbreaks of the strain of the virus H5N1, a type that is known to carry human health risks should have been learned - don’t thrash around in speculation, establish the facts.

Yesterday was busy in the media office – my colleague Jess Chappell, our policy lead on Bird flu was equally occupied, here’s her summary of day 1.

• Defra has confirmed an outbreak of Avian Influenza on a duck breeding farm in East Yorkshire (near Driffield). Investigations have so far confirmed that it is not the H5N1 strain known to be infectious for humans. We expect to find out the exact strain responsible for the current outbreak later today.
  
  
• Defra has initiated its Contingency Plan and has taken immediate action to prevent the spread of infection. This includes a 3km protection zone and 10k restriction zone around the outbreak, and culling of all poultry on the farm. Culling should start today.
  
  
• At present it is unclear how this strain has entered the UK. However data on bird migration patterns suggests little contact between the location of the outbreaks in the Netherlands and Germany and the outbreak site in Yorkshire. It therefore looks unlikely that wild birds are responsible for this outbreak.
  
  
• The ducks on the farm are housed and this, along with the measures that Defra are instigating, should limit the chances of this infection spreading to the wild bird population.
  
  
• A further Defra investigation is underway to understand the origin of the disease and confirm that there are no further cases. We will update this blog with new information as and when the situation develops.

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