What I Know About Turkey Producer Bernard Matthews

Well that was a ramble (below) wasn't it. My migraine story ..! Well it IS true ...
On my old blog there was a facility I never managed to install (due to chronic lack of html instructions) called Poll Gear. I set up my poll. Got the colour scheme right. It resembled vaguely a set of traffic lights with push-button voting and the query went like this: Lindsay Lohan -- actress or ho? If anyone knows where I can import a "poll" from I'd be most interested. I didn't have anything like the same html worries here as on the last blog. It was really simple ...
Thanks for all the paperclip advice re "insert link": I think I've just found the right button. Not the paperclip I imagined I remembered, but hey: okay, if you want to see Ruth's blog or Deb's, the correct links should be here, so get clicking away!! I can't believe it's so easy. I believe I"m on the "new" blogger. But what's oldfashioned to me is that I'm typing in practically html code; ie if I want to embolden, literal spiky brackets appear in my version of the text with the word "strong" in them. Don't know if it'll let me say that either without strengthening the type also ...
Can I alter the type face and size mid-posting? On my old one I had the choice of about 20 faces and every size from 8 point to 34++ was readily available to me .... oh the good old days of waiting 20 minutes staring at that egg timer every time I wanted to just alter a single comma. The good old days of absolutely no idea how many visitors my site got. It wasn't till I moved over to blogger that it was confirmed, I get the same number of hits as all my friends (which obviously stands to reason as we're reading one another's blogs) and I can now post something without having to budget ten minutes' egg-timer time ...
News, anyone? Upwards of 150,000 turkeys have been slaughtered at that Bernard Matthews poultry farm in Suffolk. And yes it is slightly disturbingly near Ruth's neck of the woods. I used to know someone who worked in one of Bernard Matthews' 57 farms, scattered across Norfolk and Suffolk. Now Bernard Matthews, y'all need to know, always appeared in his own advertising, assuring us in his Norfolk patois that his product was "bootiful". To me, to be honest he makes the same Christmas turkeys as anyone else but the Bernard Matthews name marks a price premium ... Anyhow, as I was saying, I knew this guy (a troubled soul, like so many of my old friends) who had worked on one of Bernard Matthews's turkey farms. The labour conditions were dreadful. These poor turkeys lived their entire lives in huge darkened sheds, air thick with feathers ... utter claustrophobia ... Several jobs were available from caring for the live birds to slaughtering, cleaning and packing them. Killing the birds earnt you a premium wage as not many people could stand slaughtering the poor little chooks day in day out with an electronic stun-gun. Anyhow, this guy's job was to grab the dead birds and hang them by the feet on hooks. Eventually, from the constant restricted movements repetitive strain type injuries developed in the hands. And scratches from the birds' claws became infected with salmonella... leading to horrifically deformed knuckles on both his hands. Also tis guy had a nasty habit of losing his temper and punching various unknown members of the public, which never helped them to heal.
They put a turkey shed on the radio before Christmas. The little birdies make noises like a crowd of people and every so often literally make the noise of a crowd bursting into laughter and applause. It was quite fantastic. Turkeys are quite gentle birds. It's a shame they are forced to live their short lives under such squalid over-crowded conditions. I've heard that sometimes (not necessarily at Bernard Matthews' farms)that they have their beaks clipped so they can't even peck at each other. Which is a normal part of their behaviour.
The bird flu must have gone through that shed like proverbial Wildfire. By midday yesterday at least 60,000 birds had been culled at this flu-ridden farm. By the end of the day, all 160,000 were dead. Gassed by this special culling-gas. I think it's awfully sad.
Avian influenza, contrary to certain comments I have overheard does not affect British garden songbirds like robins, bluetits, larks and thrushes. It only affects ducks, chickens, geese, swans and turkeys - the type of birds we coincidentally like to eat... One wild swan was found a year or so ago believed to have died from bird flu. But the current outbreak is really Britain's first major skirmish with the virus. Most worryingly it is indeed the most deadly H5N1 strain that can pass from bird to human with fatal consequences.
No strain of the flu has yet developed that can pass from human to human. When that happens - and let's hope it never does - we'll have the so-called pandemic on our hands ...

Bird Flu Crisis Hits Britain

IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME ... BIRD FLU has hit Britain WELL AND TRULY.

2,500 turkeys died of the deadly H5N1 strain in a shed at Bernard Matthews' (UK's most famous Turkey producer) Norfolk farm. H5N1 is the strain that most easily passes to human beings. And as far as the media seem to know, ALL 2500 BIRDS died NOT from being culled but from avian influenza itself!

Although the flu is not currently able to pass from human to human, it CAN pass from bird to human.

I always had a funny feeling that when the disease finally did kick off, it would do so here.

So that's the news. UK death toll = birds: 2500 ; humans: 0.

Let's hope it stays that way.

PS I've been advised (see the comments box for the post before this) that codliver oil helps prevent infection. I'm out to get a tin of sardines right now!! The lady who told me also gives some sensible advice to avoid infection. All I could add is that the common cold (which is spread pretty much like the flu) is most easily contracted through the eyes. Yes! If someone sneezes, a droplet gets on your hand and then you rub your eyes, that is how a cold is most likely caught. So the best advice for that is wash your hands frequently. And don't rub your eyes!

PPS I've slapped up some bird flu links to media stories (BBC etc) top right ...