Bird flu: England's first case this season hits free-range egg farm

A free-range egg farm in England has lost its entire flock to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), in what the farmer says is the first case in England this season.

The producer, named Armstrong, said her birds — which normally lay 28,500 eggs a day for a range of UK supermarkets — began dying about a week ago. Thirty-nine died on the Friday, she said, and by Sunday night more than 1,000 were dead. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) confirmed the virus on the Tuesday, and all the remaining birds were culled within two days to control its spread.

Armstrong described the outbreak as "a horrible shock". She said she had known what the test results would be before they arrived, and that the week had been an emotional roller coaster, moving from numbness and anger to sadness.

She praised APHA staff and the wider industry for their support, and said that despite an outbreak she estimated would cost her more than £100,000, she was "not going to sit back and let it beat us".

Calls for a housing order

Gary Ford of the British Free Range Egg Producers' Association (Bfrepa) said the farm had high standards of biosecurity, but that this does not always prevent infection because free-range hens come into regular contact with wild birds that spread the disease. The association said it would call on the government to bring in a regional housing order to protect poultry farms close to coastal areas and known flight paths of migratory wild birds.

One other case of HPAI has been reported in the UK this season, on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.

Vaccine trial and public health risk

Farmers are still waiting for the results of a government trial of a bird flu vaccine in turkeys. A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesman said the trial concluded in August but results would not be available until the end of the year, and that vaccination would not be an option for this bird flu season.

An APHA spokesperson said colder temperatures and the arrival of migratory birds were expected to bring a rise in infections, making robust biosecurity measures important for bird keepers.

The UK Health Security Agency said the risk to the general public's health from avian influenza remained very low, while the Food Standards Agency said it posed a very low food safety risk, with properly cooked poultry and poultry products, including eggs, safe to eat.

Source: BBC Science.