APHA vets criticised for ‘slow’ bird flu response

Concerns have been raised about the poor response time by Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha) vets following the reporting of a suspected case of avian influenza in the South West last autumn.

The issue was aired by Kenny Nutting of the St David’s Poultry Team, after he was called to deal with a suspected case on a farm in Dorset.

Speaking at a recent South West Regional Poultry Board meeting, Dr Nutting said as a result of his experiences, he had written to written to Gordon Hickman, Apha’s director of resilience and central services.

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In particular, he was concerned that the Apha vets only arrived on farm the day after he had first notified them. The suspect cases proved to be negative.

Tom Lander, NFU poultry adviser, who attended the meeting in Exeter, said there had been a “lessons learned” meeting between Dr Nutting, Mr Hickman and regional Apha vets to ensure high standards were maintained.

“We would like to see a rapid response from vets – ideally they should be on farm within a few hours, or certainly on the same day.

“Sometimes this isn’t possible – particularly where vets are dealing with another emergency outbreak, or if the farm is in a very isolated areas, but in this case it wasn’t the quickest of responses.”

The poultry sector is on high alert because of recent outbreaks of AI in Scotland, France and the US.

An Apha spokeswoman said movement restrictions were served on the farm, but confirmed that the vet did not visit the holding until the following morning.