Christmas Poultry Felled by UK's Worst-Ever Bird Flu Outbreak_FarmWeek

Farm Week

Christmas Poultry Felled by UK's Worst-Ever Bird Flu Outbreak

• When Christmas arrives, poultry farming witnesses a big surge. If you follow poultry market news, poultry farm news or poultry industry news, you will realize the extent to which those engaged in poultry farming benefit from Christmas.

Chicken, after all, plays an important role in Christmas celebrations in all parts of the world.

• Even if you go through poultry-related latest news, you will realize how big the industry is. Regardless of which part of the world you live in, you will see a large number of people getting fattened chicken or heritage chicken breeds home and using them to prepare a variety of chicken dishes.

What Has Affected Poultry Farming in UK?

• If you read a poultry international magazine or Google ‘poultry farm news UK’, you will realize that a recent incident has led to poultry farming suffering from a big blow in the United Kingdom. Since 1 October 2022, more than 120 cases of pathogenic avian influenza have been reported in England.

• On 16 September 2022, pathogenic avian influenza was detected in some captive birds in a town near Cheshire. The authorities jumped into action and carried out several disease-control activities and tightened the surveillance in these areas. On 23 November 2022, the presence of pathogenic avian influenza or H5N1 was confirmed near Taverham in Norfolk.

Avian Influenza: What You Should Know About It?

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This is not the first time the poultry farming community is dealing with avian influenza. Avian influenza, unfortunately, has become quite common and affects poultry farming once in a while. It is a dangerous disease that affects the livelihood of veterinarians and poultry farmers in a big way.

Limiting Its Impact

• As stated earlier, avian influenza proves to be a threat to poultry farmers’ livelihoods. When you read Poultry Farming News, you realize avian influenza creates a huge economic burden on farmers. Even if somebody is carrying out poultry farming on a small scale, it affects them greatly.

• Whenever avian influenza rears its head, farmers work closely with veterinarians and local authorities to drive it away. Apart from the trade getting disrupted, it also results in the loss of animals. Everybody makes an effort to control the impact of this outbreak.

Types of Avian Influenza

• Avian influenza largely exists in two forms – highly pathogenic and low pathogenic. Avian influenza, which is highly pathogenic, can also endanger human beings apart from having an adverse effect on poultry.

• Low pathogenic avian influenza is limited only to poultry animals. The clinical signs, in the case of severely pathogenic avian influenza, are far more prominent. When there is low pathogenic avian influenza, one has to be highly observant to notice the signs.

Resources Are Available

• Since avian influenza affects countries all across the world, different countries have come up with different strategies to tackle it. A wide number of tools and resources are used to drive avian influenza away whenever it affects a particular country or region.

• In the United Kingdom, the authorities take the necessary measures to control avian influenza after taking into account the severity of the virus and how wide it has spread. Several important organizations across the world, too, have taken important measures to control the spread of avian influenza.