Avian flu outbreak leads to warning over dead birds
– Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie
People have been warned to avoid touching dead birds in the wild after the discovery of a strain of “highly pathogenic” avian flu at a Scottish bird farm.
An entire flock of 14,000 mixed game birds was culled after the H5N1 strain was identified at a rearing site in Leven, Fife.
Concerns were raised about a high death rate in the flock and a laboratory confirmed some had been infected by the highly dangerous virus.
Restrictions have been imposed locally on poultry, eggs and manure, and bird keepers have been reminded to follow biosecurity measures.
Members of the public have been asked to report sightings of any dead birds they find in the wild but not to handle the carcasses.
Rural Affairs and Natural Environment
Minister Ben Macpherson said:
“I have put in place controls required under domestic and EU legislation that will help control any further spread of the disease in the surrounding area.
“We ask that the public remain vigilant and report any findings of dead wild birds. People should not handle the birds.”
The health risk to humans from the H5N1 virus remains very low, according to the Scottish Government.
The outbreak follows one involving the H5N8 strain in a chicken flock on Orkney in December.
An international benchmark review of Scotland’s schools has been delivered to the Scottish Government, we can reveal, but ministers insist the findings cannot be made public until after the election.
A draft of the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development ( OECD) review of the Curriculum for Excellence ( CFE) was delivered to ministers last month, according to confidential documents.
Minister sand civil servants will meet tomorrow to discuss the report and provide comments, according to the papers. The OECD will then deliver a complete draft report to SNP ministers on March 3, before ministers again provide comments on March 15.
However, the report, which was originally due to be published this month, will not be released until June, with ministers blaming the pandemic for delays.
The revelation comes as the government is accused of focusing on spin not substance after it emerged ministers had a long- awaited report into the risk of moving positive NHS patients into care homes for five days before it was published, just 15 minutes before Nicola Sturgeon was questioned about it, and three days earlier than previously suggested by authors Public Health Scotland.
The last OECD review in 2015 said a fifth of schools were rated only “satisfactory” and one in 10 was “weak or unsatisfactory”. It also found declining achievement levels in maths.
The Scottish Lib Dems obtained the documents under freedom of information legislation and party leader Willie R en ni eh as demanded the publication of an “unedited” interim OECD report before the election.
He said: “Only this SNP government could set up an independent review of Scottish education which schedules in months of ministerial editing and other jiggery pokery. It is scandalous that SNP ministers get to see the first findings from the OECD six months before anyone else. Conveniently, the rest of us only get sight of anything after the Holyrood elections.
“Who knows what that will look like given these new documents show ministers will already be scribbling notes on the OECD’S first draft.
“We need an unedited, OECD interim report before the election, and one that doesn’t have SNP ministers’ fingerprints all over it.”
In April 2020, the Scottish Government considered allowing a debate in 2021 but this was not taken forward.
Under questioning from Scottish Liberal Democrats in parliament in September 16 last year, Education Minister John Swinney said he would be“happy to discuss” with the OECD whether it could produce an interim report before the election. The documents obtained using freedom of information law reveal that Mr Swinney did not contact the OECD about this and that there had been “no direct discussions” about an interim report.
Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Beatrice Wishart added: “John Swinney told me he would be happy to discuss the possibility of an interim report with the
OECD. This investigation shows that not only did he do precisely nothing, it now turns out that a six- month period of drafts going back and forth is under way.
“The Scottish Government is trying to stitch this up. I will be asking colleagues on the education committee to recall John Swinney to discuss these revelations.”
The Scottish Government previously decided to withdraw from two major international education comparison surveys – Trends in International Maths and Science Study ( Timss) and Progress in International Ready Literacy Survey (PIRLS).
Larry Flanagan, leader of teachers’ union the EIS, said the government
could be “parking” the OECD report because it could be “politicised” in the election campaign.
He said: “We would be keen to see the report published as soon as possible because, before, during or after the election, there is going to have to be a big discussion about rebooting education in the context of recovery from the pandemic.
“We will be launching our manifesto next week around what we’d like to see underpinning that recovery. Some of the issues, for example the implications of the alternative assessment model for the senior qualifications, is one of the issues the OECD were looking at.”
The Scottish Government and OECD were approached
for comment.
Luke Ripley’s wife admits it is a struggle to think of a Valentine’s Day gift for her husband. After all, he has already been given a new heart.
Jenny, a primary school teacher, said: “I have no idea what to get him for Valentine’s. When you’ve had a gift as great as this, it’s hard to find anything to match it!”
Eighteen months after his lifesaving transplant, she says Luke, 40, is back to his old self. Well, not quite.
“The new heart has definitely softened Luke,” she said. “He’s more emotional now.
“And we are just thankful for the little things. For Luke being here, for spending time together, the greatest gift we have just now is that we have each other.”
Luke says he can still remember the tense wait in hospital as his fellow patients left, one by one.
“The doctors told me I would either be leaving hospital in a box or with a new heart,” Luke said. “I was one of the lucky ones.”
He spoke of his lifesaving transplant before a change in the law next month when Scotland will move to an opt-out system for organ donation, meaning there will be presumed organ donation unless people have expressly opted out.
Luke, as he says, was lucky. A new heart was found for him just three months after the unexpected news that his own was failing. Three days before his 39th birthday, he was rushed to hospital to discover he had just days left to live. Doctors kept him alive by connecting him to a machine to keep his heart beating.
With 23 years in the military under his belt, and routine medicals, the RAF aeronautical engineer has always been fit and healthy but after suffering flu-like symptoms for five weeks, doctors delivered the shock diagnosis that Luke had dilated cardiomyopathy and would need a transplant as soon as a suitable heart became available.
“It was a real shock,” Luke said. “The doctors told me it was just a bad cold at first and then thought it might be some indigestion problem. But it got to the point where I couldn’t take the bins out and had to sit down at the top of the stairs. My heart rate on my Fitbit went from 60 up to 125.”
The following morning, Luke woke up with excruciating chest pain. “I had a doctors appointment in a few hours so I thought I would manage until then. But when I got there they put me on an ECG machine and all sorts of bells and whistles were going off which meant it was straight into an ambulance. And that was the start of my magical adventure.”
Luke, who lives in Glenrothes and married Jenny 14 years ago, was transferred from his local hospital to the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Glasgow for urgent treatment. He was stabilised on an intra-aortic balloon pump machine, a lifeline while he waited for a transplant.
“It came as quite a surprise because I’d never had any symptoms at all,” he said. “Initially I kept thinking it wasn’t that serious and everyone was just making a big fuss about nothing.
“In fact I was a bit grumpy that it was looking like I would still be in hospital for my birthday!
“But the doctors were quite blunt when they said I couldn’t leave hospital without a transplant.”
Due to a rare blood type and being 6ft 2ins tall, the category of suitable hearts for Luke was reduced and he was told he could be looking at eight or nine months on the waiting list.
“It was a hard pill to swallow,” he said. “I went from fit and active to bedbound overnight. I realised it was going to be a pretty frightening journey. This could be life for a long time to come.”
Whilst waiting for the call, the balloon pump failed and Luke, convinced he wasn’t going to make