FARMERS ON ALERT AS BIRD FLU EDGES NEARER

Wardens at Rutland Water Nature Reserve are being extra vigilant while farmers and organisers at Melton's fur and feather auction await Government advice.

The heightened state of alert comes after experts confirmed this week that a duck in France had died from the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease.

Martyn Aspinall, senior warden at Rutland Water Nature Reserve, is one of several staff keeping a close eye on the area's birds.

He said: "We get 20,000 birds through here during the winter months and we count them once a month as a matter of course but obviously at the moment we are monitoring them more regularly and our vigilance has increased.

"We find dead birds all the time but everything that is happening is the same as it has been for the last 30 years.

"As a wild bird reserve there's not a lot we could do if there was an outbreak except continue to monitor and we would do whatever the Government told us to do."

Over the last few weeks the reserve has sent a handful of dead birds to Defra for tests, but none were considered possible bird flu cases.

Elsewhere, organisers of Melton's fur and feather auction, run at Tuesday's farmers' market, remain in close contact with the Government.

The auction was shut down by Defra in October as a precaution against the spread of the virus but was later given the all clear and re-opened in January.

Market auctioneer Tim Webster said: "We're still in contact with Defra and it is saying 'business as usual'. Obviously if Defra said to close it down we would do so straight away but until further notice there's no change."

Poultry farmers are following bio-security advice issued by the Government and are battening down the hatches against a possible epidemic.

James Chandler runs Shoby Poultry in old Dalby, a business with a total of 200,000 birds, all of which are indoors.

Mr Chandler said: "All the measures are still in place and we're not unduly worried yet. We are in close touch with Defra and are confident we're doing all we can.

"The threat is not far away now but we've got to remember that so far in Europe we have only seen isolated cases in wild birds. However, who's to say – they don't find every wild bird."

Fred Landeg, deputy chief veterinary officer at Defra, said: "We have existing robust surveillance measures in place and have taken over 3,500 samples from wild birds, which so far have not detected H5N1 in the UK. Surveillance will continue at a high level."

The Government is urging the public to report any unusual wild bird deaths on 08459 335577.

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