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Scotland faces up to bird flu Authorities criticised for acting too slowly on find CELLARDYKE(The Herald Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)AN unfamiliar fleet descended on Cellardyke's sixteenth century harbour yesterday, with the Fife village's once strong flotilla of fishing boats replaced by satellite television news vans and members of the local, national and international press. As two media helicopters hovered overhead, providing an aural backdrop to the normally serene scene, many villagers attempted to continue their lives as normal. But there was also a rising tide of concern over how the bird flu affair had been handled. The woman who found the dead bird complained that it took until the next day for government vets to collect the carcass. Astonishment greeted the fact that no police or health officials initially rushed to the site of what became Britain's first confirmed case of the H5N1 virus. Villagers were left to take their own precautions, one resorting to fashioning a simple scrawled cardboard sign - "dead swan do not touch" - to warn holidaying children and dog walkers. Tina Briscoe, 68, who lives in the village and works as a medical researcher at St Andrews University's medical school, found the bird at 5pm on March 29. She was immediately concerned about the possibility of bird flu and called the police, who she said told her to call the SSPCA, who told her to call Defra. She later brought in Tom Young, a friend and neighbour who is a research fellow at the St Andrews school of biology and has an interest in birds. Ms Briscoe said: "It should have taken just one phone call. I thought the authorities would be more aware and get into action. The police could have said they would deal with it. At first I thought they were saying, 'ah well, silly old woman'." Mr Young, 46, contacted Defra at around 8pm last Wednesday. But officials did not arrive until the following afternoon. He described his surprise at the length of time it took government vets to respond. He said: "They (Defra) said they had reports of other swans, one in Rosyth and another one. Whoever was picking them up had to pick up these others first, this was third on the list." Mr Young added: "It had obviously been dead for a while, a few days probably. It looked like a mangled heap of feathers. "It had been in the water for a while. It had obviously been pecked at or eaten by something. It was torn open." Nearby, poultry farmers who were attempting to minimise the impact of the news also complained about a lack of government guidance. Donald Peddie, 49, owner of Kilduncan, the largest poultry farm close to Cellardyke, said he was angry at the lack of contact from Defra officials. He said yesterday: "I'm not very happy. It is a difficult situation. We are trying to operate as near normal as possible. "There is no danger from eating or handling our eggs. Customer have mostly been seeking reassurance that they will be able to get their deliveries as normal. At Crail, a neighbouring coastal village, Tom Hutchon, owner of JB Penman butchers, a fixture there since 1926, said he hoped the scare would not have a similar impact to previous concerns over the link between BSE, or mad cow disease, and CJD, the human form of the illness. He said: "You wonder how it is going to affect you. The customers have not been saying very much, they're just shaking their heads. There's no great outcry. "But I also wonder myself when I hear that it was eight days ago that they found this thing and they have just started these precautions now." Elizabeth Riches, councillor for the Cellardyke - which has a population of 1900, said: "This is the moment that everyone in the country has dreaded. But people have got to keep a sense of normality. "The dangers to humans come from picking up a dead bird, fingers coming into contact with feathers and wiping hands on rocks with faeces on them. Nobody does that here. "Children are off on holiday and can't always be watched, but it is up to their parents to warn their children without alarming them." Villager Jean Duncan added: "Cellardyke is a lovely quiet place to stay normally. I hope Cellardyke will now not become known as the home of bird flu." But Fiona Dougall, a nursery worker, said: "This has put Cellardyke on the map. I live in Edinburgh but bought my holiday home here for my pension. "Seeing this place on the news shows how beautiful it is, I think more people will come here because of it, so I'm not worried." |