OK. This bird flu thing. Should we be worried.....

[Saggarmakersbottomknocker]

That they are transporting these birds 160 miles to be disposed of?

Particularly interested as the rendering plant is about 5 miles from my home....

Grrr indeed Fio.....and the byproducts will be buried at an undisclosed landfill site - probably not far from here too

No you shouldn't be worried.

Why you Grrrrring ?

What birds from the Midlans ?

They are rendering them(ie cooking them) to kill the virus. they have to move them that far because there is nowhere nearer to do it safely.

No - birds from Suffolk.

I know but Fio asked what THEY would do with the birds from the Midlands !

No there is nowhere nearer - the plant has to be specially licenced for safety - believe me this is the safest way to do it. If there was anywhere closer Defra would be using it.

They are dead though Fio ! It's not like they're going to hate the journey or anything !

Well - it IS the closest place that is licenced. You may find it laughable but that's the way it is !

This is like having a conversation with my 6 yr old !! I'm off !

No we shouldn't be worried.

We had a collective scream about this in the tearoom this afternoon - public knowledge of hard science has gone right down the pan and the media are not helping.

you're more likely to win the lottery than catch bird flu. Bear in mind that out of a world population of 6 billion, there have only been 165 deaths from bird flu.

The locals are not happy - mind you they're not happy about this plant full stop. The stink is appalling .

Before I do go - just remember that this is a BIRD disease ! The few people that have caught it in Asia have had extremely close associations with dead poultry - we just don't do that in the UK - so it is fairly unlikely that any pultry worker will get it unless they are fairly slapdash with their personal hygiene (eg if they licked an unwashed finger that had been in contact with bird poo from an infected bird).

The media have got themselves all confused - there is a chance that the virus might mutate into a human disease - but the media are peddling the idea that humans can catch bird flu !! Not impossible - but highly unlikely on a risk assessment. Person would have to be very immuno-suppressed and in close contact with infected birds - chances of that happening at moment are very very low.

People cannot get bird flu from eating poultry - virus would be destroyed at about 30 degrees centigrade ! Cooked chicken etc perfectly safe !

Right I'm off to fill the freezer with BOGOF chickens !

The broad advice issuing from our tearoom (crammed with virologists, genticists and medics) is Don't Snog Sick Chickens.

Which I think is a fair assessment of the risk.

I'm not worried about bird to human - more about bird to bird risk being increased by transporting them.