Those survivors bred among themselves, producing offspring with an inherited ability to withstand the harsh conditions. The champion of this new breed is Stephen Hall, a zoologist at De Montfort University in Leicester, England. The story says that 14 of the first 20 cases in the Settle cluster have been linked by the movement of people, vehicles or licensed movement of livestock, according to Maff. The first outbreak was reported on May 10. The spread of the disease has, inadvertently, been exacerbated by the nature of farming practices in the area.
Many farms have parcels of land away from the home premises, including some fell and moorland.
Consequently there have been many movements of people, vehicles and equipment, as well as some 350 licensed animal movements to carry out normal animal husbandry and working practices within the area. All licensed movements have, of course, now stopped within the Settle area. According to these stories, safety workers packed live chickens, quail and pigeons into trash cans and gassed them Saturday, part of a plan to eradicate Hong Kong's avian flu outbreak by slaughtering 1.2 million birds at markets and farms. Unlike a 1997 bird flu outbreak that killed six people in Hong Kong, the disease has not affected humans, but officials say the full-scale slaughter is necessary precaution. But for the next step, we'll review all our prevention and monitoring measures.