5. 4. Statement: Avian Influenza

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:11 pm on 10 January 2017.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 4:11, 10 January 2017

Thank you. Just in relation to the Member’s questions around vaccination, there is actually no vaccine against H5N8 currently authorised for use in the UK. So, I think that’s a very important point to get across. I mentioned, in a previous answer, about local authorities, and certainly in Carmarthenshire, my officials particularly said how quick they had been to deal with the incident in Carmarthenshire and there were certainly no concerns around capability or capacity. I think the point that you raised about the dead teal that was found in Conwy—. I think it’s just as important to get that message out about tourism and public health at the same time—that it’s very safe to visit and it’s safe to eat poultry and eggs.

Again, I think I’ve answered the questions around how do we get people with under 50 birds to know about this information. The best way is to put yourself on that poultry register so you get the updates regularly. I’m very pleased to hear from Janet that she is using her social media feed. I think my department has been very, very good. Certainly over the Christmas period we’ve managed to tweet a great deal of the information that we’ve been getting out, because it has evolved so quickly since I first took the decision around the prevention zone on 6 December.

Biosecurity—people are aware of biosecurity. I really can’t emphasise that point too much. I can’t possibly, and neither can my officials, visit every farm and every poultry keeper. So, again, it’s just about making sure we continually get that message out because, sometimes, when things go quiet as well, people might not think the risk is there. So it is really important that, over the next seven or eight weeks, and while that zone is in place until 28 February, we continually take every opportunity to get that message out.