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Avian Influenza

Volume 457: debated on Monday 5 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the time period was between the first contact with his Department of the veterinary surgeon who discovered the avian influenza outbreak at the Bernard Matthews plant at Holton and his Department’s first subsequent visit to the plant. (124326)

The State Veterinary Service (SVS) were first notified by the private veterinary surgeon by telephone at approximately 4.45 pm on 1 February. Restrictions were immediately put in place on the turkey rearing farm, and work started shortly thereafter on gathering the essential initial epidemiological information. Detailed discussions on the situation between the private veterinary surgeon and the SVS continued into that evening, including an agreement that a full veterinary clinical and epidemiological investigation would commence at the turkey rearing site at 8.45 am on 2 February.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the scientific evidence is that avian influenza can survive in birds for longer than six hours. (124985)

Although there has been some research into avian influenza virus survivability, most of this relates to the survival of virus in the environment. Therefore, we cannot give a definite answer as to how long the virus can remain in bird carcasses. Much depends upon the strain of virus, the host and environmental factors.

However, there is evidence to support the fact that avian influenza virus can survive longer than six hours in live birds. The incubation period for this disease (infection to the onset of illness) is typically three to five days and the virus can be isolated during the clinical phase of the disease. In some instances it may be longer.

Some species of birds (for example, waterfowl) can become infected but not show clinical signs of the disease, even when infected with the highly pathogenic strains. Many species of bird can become infected with the low pathogenic strains and show little evidence of being ill but are still infectious to other birds for some time.