July 14, 2015
Up to 170,000 chickens were being culled in an egg-laying farm in Lancashire county in England, after a suspected case of bird flu of the strain H7N7 has been confirmed.
Chief veterinary officer Nigel Gibbens said final test results "confirmed a case of avian flu at a farm in Lancashire".
Health officials said culling started Saturday and was to continue until Monday or Tuesday, even as a six-mile surveillance zone was put up around the farm, which is located at Goosnargh village, northeast of Preston city.
This means farms within the zone are not allowed to transport poultry and other captive birds within and outside the restricted area.
The Food Standards Agency, meanwhile, released a statement in the wake of the avian-flu outbreak that based on current scientific evidence, bird flu does not pose a food safety risk for UK consumers.
"The risk of getting bird flu through the food chain is very low. Some strains of avian influenza can pass to humans, but this is very rare. It usually requires close contact between the human and infected live birds", the FSA stated.
"Properly cooked poultry and poultry products, including eggs, are safe to eat", it added.
Earlier in February, an H7 strain of the disease was also found at a chicken farm in Hampshire county and in November last year the more severe H5N8 strain hit a duck farm in Yorkshire. South Africa imposed a ban on poultry imports from the UK following the avian-flu outbreak in Yorkshire and lifted it just two months ago.-Rick Alberto
