Flu Bird Blues...

...H5N1 has arrived. Turkeys have it at Holton - not a long crow's flight from us - and just when it seemed the world could not get worse, it has in spades. This is not bubonic plague, but the fear of it is. The contagion may be controlled, though if it isn't it will spread faster than a Tasmanian bush fire.

Death is a possibility - mortality perhaps (one prays not), certainly demise of many small poultry farmers whose margins are tight, whose cashflows are at best a tiny trickle.

Will we, for example, continue to eat poultry in general or turkey in particular? I'm afraid we shan't. Reassurances from DEFRA that cooked meat is 'safe' may well be true, but they hold no weight or credence. Cows were also 'safe', the consequence being new variant CJD.

The day is dark.