He destroyed 150,000 turkeys with poison gas

More than 150,000 turkeys on a farm in Suffolk, eastern England, have been destroyed by toxic gas after officials confirmed the H5N1 virus appeared here.

The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), yesterday, issued a statement confirming that the bird flu virus has been localized on Bernard Matthews Farm, near the town of Lowestoft. The UK government is also increasing the imposition of restrictions on moving poultry to avoid the spread of disease.

UN officials said they were not surprised by the outbreak of bird flu in the UK because it had been planned for a long time. Dr. David Nabarro, the UN bird envoy, stressed that Europe is ready to cope with more outbreaks.

According to Dr. Nabarro, migratory birds may be a source of infection for turkey flocks in the UK and "it is difficult to isolate farmed birds with wild birds".

The British government said the virus they discovered belonged to the same strain of Asian virus identified last month in Hungary, where an outbreak of influenza was found in a geese farm.

A medical officer is disinfecting on Bernard Matthews Farm after the outbreak
H5N1 flu broke out here. (Photo: VNN)

To date, H5N1 is still the main cause of disease in poultry. More than 200 million birds worldwide have died or been destroyed because of this dangerous virus since 2003.

H5N1 also infects humans and worldwide, there have been 271 cases identified with 165 of these deaths since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. It is feared that the flu virus could be converted into an infectious form from human to human and then, H5N1 could turn into a pandemic spread throughout the world, causing incalculable damage.

Thanh Hao