Originally from: coleen
                        

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From: ...

Originally from: "Alexis Lacy" <...>
To: <...>
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 6:07 PM
Subject: Advocates for Animals' latest Press Statement in response to Bird Flu

PRESS STATEMENT
Thursday 6 April 2006 – For Immediate Use

IN RESPONSE TO THE CONFIRMATION THAT A SWAN IN SCOTLAND HAS DIED OF HIGHLY
PATHOGENIC H5N1 AVIAN FLU VIRUS, ADVOCATES FOR ANIMALS HAS ISSUED THE
FOLLOWING STATEMENT:

PANIC-DRIVEN MASS SLAUGHTER MUST BE AVOIDED AND VACCINATION MUST NOW BE
PRIORITY

"The Scottish Executive must give urgent consideration to the use of
vaccination to prevent this disease spreading into commercial poultry
flocks. Scottish Executive veterinary officials should make contact with
their colleagues in the Netherlands and other countries where such
vaccination has already been used to discuss an effective vaccination
strategy.

The Executive must hold good to its statement made in Scotland's Avian
Influenza Contingency Plan, which comes down against a mass slaughter
policy. Although flocks on infected farms would have to be slaughtered,
healthy birds on all nearby farms must not be slaughtered as happened with
animals during the foot-and-mouth (FMD) crisis in 2001.

The Scottish Executive has ordered all commercial poultry flocks in a
designated Wild Bird Risk Area along the east of Scotland to be housed
indoors. This applies to 260,000 free range birds on 40 farms. It is
essential that the Executive gives guidance to farmers as to how to
properly
cater for the welfare of free range birds while housed indoors.

If the virus spreads to commercial flocks, which then have to be
slaughtered, the Executive must ensure that the most humane slaughter
methods are used. In the 2001 FMD outbreak many animals were ineptly
slaughtered and survived for long periods. The 2003 avian flu outbreak in
the Netherlands also involved slaughter methods that caused great animal
suffering. Such mistakes must be avoided in Scotland. The most humane
method
of killing poultry if avian flu spreads to commercial flocks is to kill
the
birds with non-aversive gases i.e. argon or nitrogen. Flooding poultry
sheds
with high levels of carbon dioxide must be avoided, as this gas is highly
aversive to poultry."

– ENDS –

Notes to Editors
For further information or interviews please call Advocates' Director,
Ross
Minett, on 0131 2256039 (07946 517585)

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