Jabs for poultry workers as bird flu fears grow

Published on Sunday 26 February 2006 00:52

HEALTH chiefs in the UK are poised to order the routine vaccination of poultry workers after tests confirmed Europe's first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus in domestic birds.

Government experts on the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) have recommended vaccinating all UK poultry workers against seasonal flu to help protect against a flu pandemic.

They say that while seasonal flu vaccination would not protect farm labourers against the H5N1 virus, it would minimise the risk of a poultry worker being infected with both human and bird flu viruses.

Health experts fear that if the bird flu virus mutates and combines with a human flu virus it could form a new strain that would spread uncontrollably around the world and cause up to 50,000 deaths in Scotland.

The dramatic move is being considered by officials at the Department of Health and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

And a Department of Health source last night said that a wider programme of immunisation for poultry workers now appeared "almost inevitable".

It comes as French authorities confirmed the H5N1 virus had been found in turkeys at a farm of more than 11,000 birds in the south-east region of Ain.

Hundreds of birds died as a result of the infection last week and the rest were slaughtered as the farm was sealed off in a bid to contain the outbreak.

Last night the French President Jacques Chirac, whose country is the European Union's largest poultry producer, was at pains to insist there was "no danger in eating poultry and eggs".

But consumer fears in France about the spread of the virus since a swan was found dead from the virus in the region two weeks ago has caused poultry sales to fall by more than 30%.

More than 350,000 geese and ducks raised for foie gras are among birds to be vaccinated this week as France attempts to stall the spread of the virus.

But in the UK, officials have resisted calls for a mass vaccination of domestic poultry, saying that while the vaccines protect birds from falling ill, they do not prevent infection and spread of the virus. They also insist that because the vaccine would mask symptoms of the disease, its presence would go largely undetected until passed to humans.

Last year the JCVI was asked to consider advice on influenza immunisation for poultry workers, which now is that poultry workers will be vaccinated only once bird flu has been confirmed in a flock. But the committee has agreed that as the risk continues to rise, seasonal flu vaccination should be offered to all at-risk poultry workers. It also reported that the Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland has decided to immunise all poultry workers.

But a spokeswoman for the province's Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety said she was unaware of such a decision and officials had not begun vaccinating workers.

Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Slovenia - have confirmed cases of the H5N1 strain. France said yesterday tests had confirmed the presence of the H5N1 bird flu virus at a turkey farm in the east of the country, where thousands of birds have died. It is the first case of the virus spreading to domestic farm birds in the EU.

Tests yesterday showed a wild duck found dead near Lake Constance in south-western Germany had been carrying the H5N1 strain. That is at the opposite end of Germany from the Baltic Sea region where H5N1 was first positively identified in the country.

Japan has suspended imports of French poultry and is to ban Dutch imports when the Netherlands begins preventative vaccinations of some flocks. Poultry sales have plunged in Italy, Greece and France since the outbreak was confirmed.

UK retailers yesterday insisted that fears of the virus arriving in Britain had not effected sales. Sainsbury's said it is issuing leaflets to reassure customers that its chicken produce is only from the UK.

But farmers yesterday

reported that free-range chicken smallholders across Scotland have taken their flocks inside out of fear birds could become infected by passing wild fowl.

Jill Bowis, who runs Kintaline Mill Farm in Oban, said: "The hysteria surrounding bird flu is already beginning to destroy some businesses around here. I know farmers who have had their flocks inside since December. It is not only effecting the farms, but the seed producers, housing producers and the breeders."

A spokeswoman for the National Union of Farmers Scotland said moving birds inside

"will create an ever increasing burden on the farmers due to the higher cost of looking after the birds' welfare indoors".