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Avian Flu

My Lords, I join other noble Lords in thanking my noble friend Lady Byford on this important and timely debate. The egg industry alone in this country has a turnover of some £570 million and 28 million birds produce within a whisker of 9 billion eggs—and that is only one section of the poultry industry. That industry is a considerable consumer of home-grown cereals at a time when that sector of farming is in considerable difficulty. Perhaps I may respond to a question raised by the noble Lord, Lord Chan: I talked to a major Scottish poultry producer who seemed satisfied with the communications that he was receiving from Government, but perhaps he is in better communication with the Government than others. I must declare my own interest in farming, although it is not in poultry. The noble Lord, Lord Soulsby, drew our attention to a new EU directive that is being prepared. I presume that, given our current national position in the European Union, we will have a fairly major part in its drafting. What new measures do the Government feel that should include? I also understand from a statement by the Minister in the other place that the Government have plans to carry out a contingency exercise on avian influenza outbreaks next June. Following the question put by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Chelmsford, will it contain measures for the general population and what is the rationale of choosing that date? Do they expect to be able to include all the provisions of the new EU directive? It appears that we are susceptible to three possible routes of infection into this country: wild bird migration, wild bird trade and the domestic poultry trade. The noble Lord, Lord Stratford, expressed some of the passion that many of us feel about the dangers that this country faces from the importation of animal diseases. I was interested to see that he is another one who subscribes to the feelings of the late Reginald Heber, who said that we live in a world where all of nature pleases and only man is vile. We are told that the threat from a major wild bird migration is almost over for the present season. I hope that the Government will not give up on their surveillance of wild bird deaths, as it seems that currently we have very little information on what diseases, if any, the current flow of migrants might be carrying. That might prove to be important if we are required to trace back an outbreak of something rather more dangerous. On trade and the infections it brings, proper and adequate quarantine provision is obviously essential. I was interested to learn that the Government are currently carrying out a review of quarantine procedures. That topic, which is of much concern to us all, was raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Masham of Ilton. Was the current review triggered by the latest incident, or is there a provision to update periodically the regulations and, if so, when was that last carried out? It is useful to know that quarantine premises are required to obtain an annual licence and are subject to periodic inspection. In those circumstances, one has to ask whether that is enough. If we are still correct in believing that wild birds are capable of transmitting dangerous strains of avian influenza to domesticated stock—I gather there is a slight question mark over that at the moment—it would appear that the most likely route of transmission would be from the trade in wild birds, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, referred. Almost by definition these are birds whose health status is not traceable over a very long period. That does not mean that it is totally necessary to try to stop the trade altogether, but it means that it cannot be seen as a business that should be allowed to operate with light-touch regulation. It seems that certain areas could be considered in the current view of quarantine procedures. I hope it will not be seen as out of place for me to make my own suggestions, because in no way am I an expert in such matters. I was interested to learn that the Essex premises, where the recent incident occurred, were regarded as having been vacant from 9 March until 16 September and that they had been inspected within the past few months. Did that inspection coincide with the premises being empty and was the report of the inspection fully satisfactory? A point that the review might like to consider is that, as with other infectious disease outbreaks, it might be better if periods used for carrying out disinfection were subject to official notification and random inspection. Secondly, what is the strength of the ruling currently employed which says that all deaths in quarantine should be subject to testing? Is there a time limit by when the tests should be completed? Even if carcases are stored in a refrigerator, by when should they be tested? I am led to believe that even in cold conditions, a virus such as H5N1 deteriorates. Can the negative samples taken from the fridge in Essex be regarded as conclusive? My third point is that some value is put on the presence of sentinel birds. In these wild bird quarantine centres, would it not be an idea to have more than one species of sentinel bird? As well as having chickens, perhaps there could be ducks. An area of research that was not touched on by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, is the question of testing for this disease. It is good news that our State Veterinary Service is now working on a test that it hopes will reduce the time for an initial result from three days to three hours. Has the Minister anything to tell the House about how long that research has been going on and whether there is any likelihood of bringing it to a rapid conclusion?