Avian influenza update

So since last week I've been reading the veterinary news and well nothing new has turned up, however there has been more news on the avian influenza from last week. So here goes on the update. 

So since last week it has been confirmed by the BVA Welsh branch and BVPA that a wild duck in Wales has been found dead and has letter been confirmed to have dies from avian influenza H5N8. 

Now this isn't good news a all for poultry keepers in the UK. The alert has now been raised to 'high'. It means that the avian flu from main land Europe has been carried over to the UK. Which subsequently means our native wild birds could become infected. That gives us a larger danger of our poultry livestock catching the virus and wiping out whole farms. 

So what can be done to help farmers prevent this happening? Well to try and prevent this farmers can try to limit if not terminate their birds contact with wild birds, these are the birds that are on high alert. Other than that not much can be done but the BVA has still said that it is imperative that if anyone suspects a case of avian flu the. They must report it to their local vet or directly to the BVA as soon as possible in order to try and prevent further spread of this virus around the UK. 

( photo from Google images. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/flu/11236268/Why-avian-flu-is-nothing-to-worry-about.-Yet.html) 

Thank you for reading I hope anyone who actually reads this had an amazing Christmas and I wish you a happy new year.