No Channel Racing?

[Guest bristolkev]

i hope this is the only one!

 

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=61606

[Guest bristolkev]

another link

 

http://www.avian-bird-flu-news.co.uk/

[NANCYVIEWLOFTS]

anyone heard about a outbreak of bird flu in JAPAN and HUNGARY

[Pompey Mick]

Am I reading DEFRA's new licence conditions correctly, It has been updated on the 22nd Jan  and supercedes  the August 1st conditions and there is no provision for Channel Racing as far as I can see . I hope I have read it wrong, but it doesn't look good.

[Guest]

Hello look under (could be bad news) pn message forum on this site

[Guest]

The situation has worried me for a few weeks, I did not want to post doom and gloom.....but the NHS has been telling GP to get ready for a flu pandemic. In work (i work for social Services) we have been told to prepare for sickness levels of 50 - 70% becasue of an expected flu pandemic. These are coming from Government health departments, DEFRA will obviously take account. Last year I think we did not do enough. This year I think there is little Peter Bryant can do, it is in the hands of the health experts. I hope Mick and I are wrong

[robinthfc]

The situation has worried me for a few weeks, I did not want to post doom and gloom.....but the NHS has been telling GP to get ready for a flu pandemic. In work (i work for social Services) we have been told to prepare for sickness levels of 50 - 70% becasue of an expected flu pandemic. These are coming from Government health departments, DEFRA will obviously take account. Last year I think we did not do enough. This year I think there is little Peter Bryant can do, it is in the hands of the health experts. I hope Mick and I are wrong

 

Maybe I aint very bright..but why might that stop channel racing ??..I'm a north roader so it won affect me.

 

 

[Pompey Mick]

The DEFRA website is

www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/ai/keptbirds/genlicence.htm

[Guest]

The only difference that I can detect in this license (I think) is that it now allows the movement of racing pigeons in and out of the UK provided they are captive during the out and back journeys and are quaranteed for 7 days on arrival back into the UK.

 

Other than that, position as before, no racing from channel islands or continent ... early days tho as far race season goes ... and think this is meant to be for interim period only

[paul l]

The situation has worried me for a few weeks, I did not want to post doom and gloom.....but the NHS has been telling GP to get ready for a flu pandemic. In work (i work for social Services) we have been told to prepare for sickness levels of 50 - 70% becasue of an expected flu pandemic. These are coming from Government health departments, DEFRA will obviously take account. Last year I think we did not do enough. This year I think there is little Peter Bryant can do, it is in the hands of the health experts. I hope Mick and I are wrong

 

i work in a hospital and hearsd the same to be aware as flue on the way that no one has ever seen b4

[Guest]

I have merged 2 other threads ,,, bad news & bird flu into this one as they are all related.

 

(1) There has been a confirmed outbreak of H5N1 in Hungary amongst farmed geese. Europe had been previously clear since August 2006.

 

(2) There has been an ongoing preparation throughout the whole world for a potentially lethal flu pandemic. These happen in 30 year cycles and in 2006 Britain's first pandemic contingency plan drafted in 2005 was shredded because expert opinion reckoned it was woefully inadequate and a new one put in place at the back end of last year. All agencies have to check their preparedness as per contingency plan and I think that is what Albear for example is picking up. We have also been building up stocks of the antiviral drug Tamiflu for the past two years, as have other countries as per the World Health Organisation pandemic contingency plan. Its all rather old news folks.

 

There is a timeline of events dating back to 2004 on this website. The history of current events is charted in the Avian flu sticky thread. Don't be afraid, be informed.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pompey Mick]

It may  be early days as far as the more Northern fanciers are concerned but it is a hammer blow for the South coast fanciers. We, in the Solent Fed, race almost entirely across the Channel and it leads to a lot of internal squabbling when we have to choose an Inland route. Hopefully DEFRA will give us advance warning if they will allow Channel Racing later in the season to allow us to formulate a viable race programme.

[ray]

 

wait till something happens nearer home, winter time is always a bad time for all diseases so stop going on about it if it happens it happens there's nothing you or i can do about it, what we can do is stop drawing attention to our selves, and stop going on about it, this is all i will say on the matter, profits of doom and gloom ray

[Pompey Mick]

This is no prophesy, this is fact. At this moment, and for the foreseeable future we have no Channel Racing, we have ,at the moment, no indication whether there will be Channel racing this season. DEFRA currently have the Avian Flu risk as HIGH. We will be trying to work out a Race programme for the Solent Fed in two weeks time, this is a Fed that normally has 12 Channel races for Old Birds.

Unless we get some directive we will have a very disruptive meeting.

[Guest TAMMY_1]

anyone heard about a outbreak of bird flu in JAPAN and HUNGARY

 

IT HAS BEEN CONFIRMED IN JAPAN THIS MONTH HERE IS THE LINK TO READ ABOUT IT

 

 

  www.pipay.be/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4352

 

 

[mickmcgrevy]

Doom and gloom,   We are not racing from Japan, nor from Hungary,    if we have no outbreaks in an area which is a lot closer to our line of flight, I can see no reason why the ristrictions will be any worse than they were last year.

France opened up to us in June, DEFRA have been aware of the situation now for over twelve months, 9 last year it was thrown right in there laps and they hadn't got a clue ) it is my opinion, and thats all it is, we will be racing from France and beyond this year.

 

All the best

 

Mick    

[blackjack]

Mick when do you think Maff will let us onto the continent and when will we know .I have dealt with Maff they do not help and do not use commonsense Mick Ie foot and mouth ,svd,etc sorry Mick be prepared for shock commonsense does not apply for Maff .

[Guest]

I think the new licence (22th January) comes from the Hungary outbreak ( 19th, reported to OIE on 21st ), and not from the 14th December meeting with the pigeon Unions. I think that is still to come later. but in time for starting racing in April.

 

My reasons are that DEFRA had another AI risk assessment carried out following the Hungary outbreak, published on their website on 24th. That said risk of AI introduction to UK was negligible because an EU-wide surveillance programme had turned up no H5 or H7 in wild birds, and our migratory birds flightpaths were different: north eastern, central and southern Europe..  not Eastern Europe and not Hungary.

 

I think the outbreak unfortunate, but the affected flocks have been culled and the 3km & 10km zones remain for 21 & 30 days after which (hopefully) Europe goes back to AI-free status.

[mickmcgrevy]

Doom and gloom,   I just think we all should be a little more optomistic, things can't be worse than they were last year, If you read between the lines I think DEFRA have more or less accepted that they overreacted last year, and who can realy blame them. They hadn't got a clue about pigeon racing or what was going to happen re H5N1.

As to when do I think we will be allowed into France, I would think considerably earlier than we were last year.

 

Fingers crossed.

 

Mick    

[Guest]

I said it last year and it looks as if its the same this year we dont need anybody to do harm to our racing we can do it ourself let the people who we voted in to the top positions fight it out with the nec . defra etc they did the best job we could have hoped for given the time that the hole bird flu thing started and i think they have had more time tp prepare this year iam shure if racing is to be got they guys get it for us but THE LAST THING WE NEED IS TO START THE PANIC ourselfs