'Hungary link' to bird flu case? Government has ignored Green's repeated warnings on risks of factory farming

08 February 2007

The strain of bird flu found at a turkey farm at Holton in Suffolk may have been brought in to the country from Hungary. The highly pathogenic H5NI strain of bird flu was found in Hungary in January and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have said that early tests showed the two infections "may well be identical". The company concerned, Bernard Matthews, have a Hungarian operation. Local people have reported seeing Hungarian lorries entering the farm.

Graham Elliot of Waveney Green Party said:

"In factories where thousands of birds are kept in cramped, warm conditions is the perfect environment for virus mutation and infection. The mass movement of both live poultry, and hatching eggs, is the perfect vector for virus transmission. The poultry in the Norfolk outbreak last year were hatched in France. Is it really likely that an infected swan broke into the Bernard Matthews factory in Holton? Far from being "bio-secure", modern factory farming practices have become the factories and distribution network for avian flu and other diseases. Junior agriculture minister Ben Bradshaw has denied any possible link between the disease and factory farming. He would lose some powerful friends if didn't do so."

Green Party MEP Dr. Caroline Lucas has also attacked DEFRA minister Ben Bradshaw's "incredible ignorance" over the causes of bird flu after it emerged he ignored calls to study the link between the virus and factory farming in a report she sent to his office last July.

Dr Lucas said:

"Last year I co-authored a report examining the clear links between intensive poultry farming methods and bird flu, calling on the Government to investigate urgently these links and the possibility of halting factory farming to prevent the spread of the virus. It is clear that this warning was ignored: Ben Bradshaw has insisted there was no evidence for such a link, revealing an incredible level of ignorance.

This must be remedied immediately: the Government must urgently set up an inquiry into the links between unsustainable factory farming and the deadly virus based on a wealth of evidence from earlier outbreaks around the world."

Last year Dr Lucas published Avian 'Flu – Time to Shut the 'flu factories? - a report examining the link between factory farming, international trade and the spread of the disease.

It concluded that the Government must consider ending those factory farming methods likely to hasten the development and spread of bird flu, such as keeping thousands of birds in cramped warm conditions perfect for virus mutation and infection. As a precautionary measure the EU should immediately halt all imports and exports of live poultry and hatching eggs.

And though Dr Lucas sent her report direct to DEFRA ministers, junior agriculture minister Ben Bradshaw has denied any possible link between the disease and factory farming.

Lucas, who was Vice-President of the EU's Committee of Inquiry into the UK's 2001 outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, said the Government has been thrown into a panic over the outbreak - and should do its homework and examine the link between factory farming and the virus before it strikes again.

"Junior DEFRA minister Ben Bradshaw has claimed 'It's not true to suggest that the disease is more likely to happen in intensive rearing' - this reveals the ignorance at the heart of a panicked Government that just doesn't know what to do next." she said.

"Mr Bradshaw really must do his homework and make sure he fully understands the likely causes of the outbreak before repeating the terrible mishandling of foot and mouth by slaughtering millions of healthy animals and endangering the livelihoods of poultry farmers up and down the country.

We have long known that factory farming and live animal imports and exports are deeply cruel practices resulting in million of birds becoming sick or dying prematurely: now it seems that they could have caused the first mass outbreak of bird flu on British soil."

Note to Editors:

Dr Lucas's report: "Avian Flu - time to shut the 'flu factories?" is available at www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk or on request from Ben Duncan on either number below.

Ben Duncan
Media Officer to Caroline Lucas MEP
benduncan@greenmeps.org.uk
01273 671946 (office)
07973 823358 (mobile)