London, Europe Brief News – The British authorities issued strict measures to stop the Bird Flu spread across the country.
Bird keepers in England, Scotland and Wales have been urged to follow up the strict biosecurity measures.
The government stopped short of asking all bird owners to bring their animals inside, a measure already in place in the east of England.
The country has seen it’s biggest ever bird flu outbreak in the past year with more than 170 cases confirmed.
Thur UK authorities declared 190 cases since late October 2021 across the country. Over 30 of these confirmed since the beginning of this month.
“We’ve never had to do this before. We’ve never had this level of environmental infection going on before that’s posing such a risk,” said Prof Christine Middlemiss, the UK’s chief veterinary officer.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advised that the risk to public health from the virus was very low. The Food Standards Agency advised that avian influenzas posed a very low food safety risk for consumers. It said properly cooked poultry and poultry products, including eggs, are safe to eat.
The H5N1 and H7N9 strains of bird flu, detected in 1997 and 2013, respectively, have been responsible for most cases of human illness from avian influenza, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.
Human infections of zoonotic, or animal-borne, influenzas are “primarily acquired through direct contact with infected animals or contaminated environments. But they do not result in efficient transmission of these viruses between people”, according to the World Health Organization.
