The UK has had yet another bird flu outbreak, with 10,000 turkeys set to be culled to prevent a spread.
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It looks like turkey is off the menu this year, but for all the wrong reasons!
An outbreak of bird flu at a farm in North Yorkshire has led to over 10,000 turkeys being culled. Although this strain of the virus (H5N8) has not yet been found in humans, the cull is seen as necessary to prevent another potential pandemic.
Aside from the cull, the farm will also introduce a temporary control zone of 3-10km around the site to ‘limit the risk of the disease spreading.’
However, the UK has seen three outbreaks in the past fortnight alone: Gloucestershire, Chester and now North Yorkshire. This is causing concern from experts, especially since the outbreaks are so spread out and not contained in one area of the country.
A pandemic risk?
While the farm told The Telegraph that ‘there is no risk to human health or food safety’, the last H5N8 epidemic resulted in millions of poultry being culled across Europe. The risk from zoonotic diseases is simply too significant to be ignored, and continuous cullings are not the answer. We need an end to animal farming.
Raising animals for food, fur, and medicine has been named as ‘the single most risky behaviour’ for pandemics. So why are we still breeding and killing millions of animals each year? It just doesn’t make sense to risk our health in this way, especially since we can thrive on a vegan diet.
While the killing of 10,000 more turkeys is not something we wished for, we hope that these outbreaks cause people to think twice about eating meat this Christmas.
Still not sure what to serve up as your vegan centrepiece on Christmas day?
Read our round-up of the best vegan Christmas ranges to buy in UK supermarkets for 2020.
