email from Dr Chris Ashton March 30 2006

The letter below has been sent to Smallholder Magazine and other recipients.

As pointed out by free range poultry keepers and breeders of pure breeds, especially waterfowl, our birds cannot be confined for any length of time. Sometimes the housing is not available. Even if it is, it may not be suitable, and welfare is compromised. These stock and free range birds are not the same as industrial birds reared for 6-7 weeks in sheds with high biosecurity.

An alternative strategy, other than confine and cull, should be in place to protect these outdoor birds, should the need arise. Ordering and obtaining vaccine, and establishing rules to use it, takes months.

Letter to Smallholder Magazine

I would like personally to thank Smallholder magazine for continuing to provide up-to-date information on avian influenza. Dr Sarah Binns' article was a lucid overview of the reality of using vaccines. Perhaps government officials should be listening more closely to the vets who did experience the Foot and Mouth disease crisis at first hand, and who cannot see any sense in revisiting that scene.

Recognized bodies of experts have established the science behind bird flu vaccines. Elm Farm Research Centre* www.efrc.com, an opponent of the cull policy during FMD, has formed an alliance with organisations which represents over 80 per cent of the UK’s organic poultry producers to persuade the government to prepare now to vaccinate organic and outdoor poultry in the UK against avian flu. “Vaccination has been shown to work and other countries are willing to use it, why not here?”.

Their statement is supported by the information summarized below from the British Veterinary Association, and supported by groups of birds enthusiasts in the UK such as the British Waterfowl Association, Goose Club, Call Duck and Indian Runner Duck Associations, Henkeepers Association, Scots Dumpy Club, Araucana Club and the Poultry Club.

All of these organisations urge that an operational vaccine bank should be in place, with rules established for its use. The most optimistic scenario is that we never get a case of Avian Influenza in the UK. The worst, is that we do, and there is no vaccine in the bank.

Yours sincerely,

Christine Ashton (Dr)

* Elm Farm Research Centre can be contacted at 01488 658298

http://www.bva.co.uk/policy/issues/AI_vaccination_statement.pdf

BVA supports the use of vaccination under the following circumstances:

1 Vaccinating high risk birds, from zoos or private bird collections, which

cannot be moved indoors for welfare reasons.

2 Where there is a high risk of spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus

to the UK.

3 Preventative vaccination in high risk areas where it is felt impossible to

maintain adequate separation of domestic flocks from a high density of wild birds

suspected of carrying AI, (based on a risk assessment).

4 Emergency vaccination as a disease control option where other control

methods have failed to contain the further spread of infection, or for high risk

groups in the near vicinity as detailed above if preventative vaccination has not

already been considered

5 If the level of culling as a control method reaches such a level as to be

unjustifiable on ethical or welfare grounds, as has now been declared in the

Asian context by the WHO, OIE and FAO.

6 If the disease becomes endemic in the UK and persists at high levels in the wild

bird population.

7 Where the welfare of birds is considered to be severely compromised; for

example, free range flocks that are required to be housed indoors for long periods.

Vaccination would allow the birds to be returned outdoors and they should be

constantly monitored (use of sentinel birds).