Ah, shit!
Posted on 02/24/2006 6:25:18 PM PST by Cornpone
PARIS (Reuters) - France on Saturday confirmed the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu at a farm in the east of the country where thousands of turkeys had died.
It was the first case of the virus in domestic farm birds in the European Union and threatened to deal a severe blow to France's struggling poultry industry, worth 6 billion euros ($7 billion) a year and the biggest in the bloc.
The outbreak was discovered on Thursday at the farm with 11,000 turkeys in the Ain department, where two cases of H5N1 had already been confirmed in wild ducks.
Laboratory tests by Afssa, France's national agency for nutritional safety, showed the virus found at the turkey farm was 99 percent homologous with that found in one of the ducks, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.
An investigation was under way to establish how the farm became contaminated with the virus, the ministry added.
"What worries us, and this is why we have reacted immediately, is that the farm is within the protection zone that we set up for the first duck," Farm Minister Dominique Bussereau told French television on Friday, when the authorities were testing for the virus.
Poultry sales in France are already down by about 30 percent.
The industry received another blow on Friday when Japan's embassy in Paris said Tokyo had imposed a temporary ban on imports of French poultry products after bird flu was found at the turkey farm.
"In France they have found a farm-raised fowl contaminated with the virus. It's Japan's policy to ban poultry imports" from countries hit by bird flu, an embassy spokesman said, adding that the ban was temporary and would take effect immediately.
The deadly virus is highly contagious among poultry and can spread through an entire flock within hours. It remains difficult for humans to catch but has killed more than 90 people worldwide. Experts say cooked poultry meat is safe to eat.
The virus has spread from Asia to Africa, and experts fear poultry in more regions around the world could soon be infected.
SECURITY ZONE
Local sources said about 80 percent of the turkeys at the French farm, in a region famous for the quality of its chickens, had died. The remaining birds were culled.
A security zone of three km (two miles) and a surveillance zone of seven km (five miles) had been set up around the farm as is usual under EU emergency measures, officials SAID.
Under EU rules, poultry meat, eggs and products from the zones set up around a bird flu infection site are blocked from the market, except for certain products that meet stringent conditions, such as heat-treated meat.
However, trade in these products may continue from other non-affected parts of the country.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has announced an aid package for the sector worth 52 million euros.
He travelled to Lyon on Friday, where authorities held a bird flu simulation exercise focussed on the potential arrival of infected people on a plane from a bird flu-hit region.
France has permission from the EU for a limited vaccination programme in geese and ducks in three departments in the west of the country believed to be at risk from migratory birds.
Bussereau said two of the departments had decided to opt for the confinement of fowl rather than vaccination.
(Additional reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich in Paris and Jeremy Smith in Brussels)
Now in France.......it's edging closer to the US. Hopefully it can be stopped.
But with the migratory birds, who knows?
Was it found in Turkey?
And who cares what Turkey says?
Turkey is a muslin country.
Ah, shit!
Why did the turkeys get the works?
That's no one's business but the Turks.
Beauty is only scrim deep.
No more dindon! What are we to do?
It makes sense that turkeys would lie about bird flu....
susie
How are the turkeys handling French POWs? They must be surrendering en masse.
Now, are they going to make an anti-France box office movie too?
Then: Short the living SH*T out of Tyson Foods and KFC!!!!
Experts say cooked poultry meat is safe to eat.
Yeah Right
The key with the puts is getting the timing right, lest they expire useless . . .
Cheers!
You are right. Better have a good broker who can find the shorts at the right time.
Is this effecting migratory birds at the same rate as farm raised? I am more worried about the increase in insects and insect related disease if the world's bird populations are decimated by this.
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