Over 70,000 birds culled due to avian flu outbreaks in the north-east
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Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid has expressed further concern on the avian flu situation in the north- east after NFU Scotland last night revealed 72,000 birds have been culled in Aberdeenshire over the last 10 days from two locations.
Both farms are in the Banff and Buchan constituency.
Mr Duguid, who has written to the Scottish Government, said: “The number of birds which have had to be culled in Aberdeenshire due to avian flu is absolutely devastating.
“This astronomical number highlights the worrying situation our poultry farmers are facing so close to Christmas with supermarkets locally already rationing eggs.
“The Scottish Government continue to be in hiding over the issue and are not prioritising the significant threat this disease poses to the industry despite growing fears from NFU Scotland.
“I wrote to the Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon last month outlining my concerns over the lack of action to tackle this urgent crisis but have still not received a response.
“If Scotland isn't following the same housing rules as England then I want to know what the government is doing to prevent this spread which is continuing to escalate throughout our region.”
It has also been noted that a farm in Ayrshire has culled 32,000 hens and12 swans were believed to have died from bird flu after being found in a Glasgow park on Tuesday.
NFU Scotland said it was also aware of three non-commercial outbreaks, two in Orkney and one on Lewis.
Some supermarkets have started to limit the number of boxes of eggs customers can buy due to supply issues.
Asda said customers would be limited to buying two boxes of eggs until further notice, while Lidl is limiting customers to three.
Scotland's chief vet Sheila Voas in an interview told BBC Scotland she was "following the science", saying there had been 100 outbreaks in England, but just six in Scotland since 1 October.
She added: "Potentially housing would help, but housing is much less effective than improved biosecurity generally."
