VFTR

[Pompey Mick]

This is part of the latest VFTR,

 

'VIEW FROM THE REDDINGS

 

 

 

AI Update

 

The news form Germany is not good.  German Authorities have confirmed more than 100 new cases of H5N1 in wild birds over last weekend. Disease control zones have been established in line with EU legislation.  So what does that mean for us in the UK.  Well the other glitch which is outside of our control is that the French Government will not review the pigeon racing ban until the 2nd August.  We will however be pushing DEFRA to allow us to race from Belgium as the authorities there have stated that there are no restrictions in racing from Belgium.  We do have a few weeks to let things settle down abroad but it would be good to get something formalized so that young bird programmes can at least look a little more certain.'

 

'not good' is a bit of an understatement methinks.

 

 

[Guest]

Think the wording in DEFRA's July 'inland' licence was ominously negative  - got feeling that any revison could be expected to go only one way - even more restrictive - didn't see any signs to base hope on for a relaxation - had posted elsewhere hundreds of migratory wild birds dead in one area in Germany, only one event has been bigger, Quingai Lake 2005, and that led to disease introduction throughout Europe..

[Guest]

Yes Bruno, but where is the press coverage, compare that to winter 2005/2006 and the daily updates on the news and the papers???

 

Why I wonder was there so much advice and warnings sent out to the medical profession then but now GPs have not even had an advisory warning to be on their guard with this latest outbreak????

 

No rise in status, no publicity.................no threat??? Ok being slightly flippant but has the risk assessment been made and concluded minimal risk??

 

I've tried to bite my lip, did plenty of campaigning and complaining last winter because i was in a minority in thinking that Peter Bryant was not doing a good job with avian flu. Building up good relationships is first class and needed in any organisation but when its not a two way thing and its obvious the bulding of bridges is not advantageous to us then they need to be burnt and new routes found.

 

DEFRA have given nothing, when other countries have continued to race we have been penalised...........I really do think its time we took advice from our Solicitors as to our position and how we are being discriminted against compared to other European countries. It may be this has been done, if it has I'd like to see the report.....after all when it came to ETS Queens Council was sort, as to how we would be discriminating against people with disabilities if we did not adopt ETS.

 

Let's seek the same advise over Avian Flu and if we've had it, let's see what the question was and what the advise is.

[Guest]

Agree with you Albear, but at the moment I think it is a good thing that we are not racing on the Continent. Despite all our previous differences on this subject, I think we agreed on one thing, that when AI was about in Europe, it was best that we keep our birds at home - even if only to protect our currently intact reputation that we have had absolutely no involvement in spreading the virus.

 

I reckoned the writing was on the wall after reading the DEFRA risk assessment dated 12th July. There's been more than one thread on AI on this board, so I've copied my original post down from the main AI thread,

 

Latest Risk Assessment, published 12th July, but only deals with H5N1 transmission by migratory wild birds. Lot of new and interesting stuff in it about different wild bird species and their habits, that tends to gloss-over the real facts on the current outbreaks in Europe - and that is a new outbreak of a new H5N1 strain which first occurred amongst poultry in Czech Republic, and there appears to have been a spill-over from that outbreak into the wild migratory bird population which has spread the virus westwards, causing relatively huge numbers of deaths amongst the wild population, especially in Germany.

 

The report also concludes that there is a high risk of certain species introducing the virus into Britain in the coming weeks and months.

 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/monitoring/pdf/qra-recentdevelopments120707.pdf

 

 

But yes, fair deal for pigeons and pigeon fanciers in British Isles is a worthy cause, won't be handed it on a plate, something thats got to be won.

[Guest]

Bruno, understand the DEFRA risk assessment but the risk assessment is made to try and ensure H5N1 does not come to this country but most importantly does not jump species.

 

My point is that surely if the risk is as high as expressed by DEFRA that it will be introduced into this country, why hasn't the awareness levels been raised in the medical profession. My wife is a practice manager for one of the largest general practices in the County with 12000 patients but she has received nothing from the Dept of Health suggesting there is even a minor rise in the risk?

 

I can't comprehend why there is no corolation, 2005/2006, there was something coming through nearly every day and there was genuine concern.

 

Yes Bruno we need at times to be conservative and if that means, not flying overseas then so be it. but we must not lie down without a whimper. We will be forever trod on. Years ago DEFRA (MAFF et al) had a 'sovereign' right, that has been diluted with the EEC. There are many instances where we are discriminated adversly aaginst. Look at licencing of products, it costs less to licence in belgium for example (or demand is greater) surely if we are one europe, standards and licencing should be the same if a product is licenced for Belgium why can't that licence be valid for the UK (apologies I know I digress).