09/02/2017 South Today

Hello and welcome to South Today, I'm Laura Trant.

Some restrictions are lifted after the bird flu outbreak.

Innovative and life-changing - doctors from around the world gather

in the South to learn pioneerling techniques in keyhole

As efforts continue to prevent a spread of bird flu,

some poultry farmers have today found themselves facing continued

restrictions which they say threaten their livelihoods.

All poultry owners have had to keep their birds

inside since December, and while those measures will be

lifted for many from next month, some areas of the country have been

labelled high-risk so controls will remain in place.

Lewis Coombes is live at one such farm in Berkshire.

Riverways Farm here in Twyford usually has around 5000 chickens

running around outsid, but since an outbreak of avian flu

just before Christmas at eight sites across the country

they've been told to keep inside instead.

Today they've found out that restriction remains, as this

farm is close to water where wildfowl gather.

The problem with that is when chickens are kept

inside for over 12 weeks their eggs can no longer be labelled

as free-range, which affects their price.

For other farmers, outside the high-risk zone, today has

Well, it's really good news for me, we will be able to carry on our

The cash flow is what's the best thing, because we

know we will still get the same amount of money for the product that

we sell that we have been doing all the time,

so it will make our lives not easier but take a lot of pressure

away from us, you know, the worry of having our eggs downgraded.

So Phillip in Hampshire wiping his brow, not the case

for Andrew Cardy here in Berkshire and other egg producers who fall

It must be frustrating that some farms are affected and you are one.

Very frustrating. This morning I was very pleased that some farmers but

it is worrying for all of us. Free range is a brand you are hoping to

protect? Very much so. We are lucky, we sell most of our eggs locally and

our customers will support us, but larger farms tied into supermarket

contracts, will they maintain the same price? It remains to be seen.

Free range is a product people are prepared to pay for. Farmers have

invested millions in their farms, we can only be free range when we have

roam around, and the reduction in roam around, and the reduction in

price from free range to barn eggs could hurt a lot of people, there

will be farmers going out of business to be sure.

If you keep poultry or other birds then you can find out if you fall

within a higher-risk zone by typing in your postcode on an interactive

This than maybe extended but hopefully it will be over soon for

farmers like these. -- this ban may be.

There's a new case of female genital mutilation, or FGM

as it is known, every 90 minutes in the UK.

That's according to the charity Plan International UK.

It has been illegal to carry out FGM in the UK since 1985,

but there has not been a single prosecution.

In Reading, an area with a high prevalence of FGM,

a new centre is being opened to tackle the issue.

I was at an age of four or five years old when my grandparents

started speaking to me about being cut.

Jennifer comes from an influential east African family but she only

avoided female genital mutilation by running away from home.

Now living in Berkshire, the cutting tradition

still casts a long shadow over her and her mother.

She says that her life has been ruined by me not getting cut.

She gives examples of where she has received death threats,

Sometimes she would go back home to her family in the village

and they literally would not accept her, nobody

In 2014, Reading was declared one of 11 hotspots for FGM

Mandatory reporting has uncovered more than 40 cases

Initial research suggests that the actual figure is far higher.

This week campaigners were preparing for the launch

It is the first organisation of its kind bringing together

professionals and those groups where the practice continues.

The ultimate aim is to end FGM and community engagement

Now a mother herself, Jennifer worries for her daughter,

for even though the little girl's parents have decided she won't be

cut, both mum and dad are under pressure from the wider family.

Despite female genital mutilation being banned in the UK since 1985,

it continues to happen - figures suggest more than 130,000

women and girls in Britain are affected,

with 5,700 new cases in 2015 to 2016.

That's the question I asked Jacqui Hunt from Equality Now.

It is a huge problem in the world, 3 million women and girls

are at risk every year of FGM, and there is still a sense

I think more and more, and increasingly in the UK

and globally, with the leaders from African countries,

we are seeing it as a human rights abuse that has to be addressed

by everyone, so even though the figures are really large

and very disturbing there is more political will now to address it

Because we have the legislation in place but in fact there have

been no prosecutions, even though it's been

That's true, there have been no prosecutions.

I know there's a push to try and get a prosecution,

not for the prosecution's sake but to show that we're really

I think what you have to do is have a multi-sectoral approach,

so you have the Health Department working on it, you have social

services, teachers becoming more aware and the police as well,

and communities being very much organised.

But how will that actually change, because this is a hugely sensitive

issue immersed in cultural practices that have existed for

How do we actually go about creating change?

I think we create change from within the communities

themselves, and also showing the support of the broader community

that it is a human rights abuse, and that change is coming.

We work very much all over the world, in Kenya particularly

Local communities are talking about the practice,

they're getting together, they're having alternative rites

of passage, to keep some of the culture but remove the bad

bits of the culture, the harm to the girls

being done, and so there is an enormous change happening.

I think when you look at it here it's very difficult,

because the diaspora community sometimes is far away

from the progress that has actually been happening at home.

operations that helps patients recover more quickly

and frees up hospital beds is being pioneered in Southampton.

Today nearly 100 specialists from around the world

As our health correspondent, David Fenton, reports,

patients are already seeing the benefits.

Georgina Westbrook had 60% of her liver removed

I was told that they only ever do the liver with open surgery

but I was fortunate that I entered a trial which resulted in me

randomly being picked out for laparoscopic surgery.

That means keyhole surgery, and it worked.

36 hours after the operation, Georgina left hospital.

For my family, for myself and for the NHS.

Keyhole surgery is used for all sorts of procedures.

But today nearly 100 specialists from all over the world met

at Southampton General, where new keyhole techniques

Southampton has a unique position in that type of surgery,

so they have a lot of input and innovation in the procedure.

Now the surgeon behind many of those innovations says more NHS

Our patients suffer less, they do much better,

they have less complications, they go home much quicker.

And I think that patients across all the UK should

have the possibility to have the same treatment.

Not everyone can have this type of surgery but,

three weeks on from her operation, Georgina's recovering well.

That's all from the South Today news team this evening.

We're back tomorrow with bulletins in BBC Breakfast and there's more

Here with our regional weather forecast is Alexis.

Good evening. Lots of cloud tonight. Where we have clear spells the

chance of frost in the countryside and the chance of isolated wintry

showers. Chairing the early hours maybe a dusting of snow, more likely

for eastern parts of the region, but they could push westwards, and

bridges will drop to freezing in towns and cities, slightly lower

temperatures in the countryside. An increasing easterly and

north-easterly wind tomorrow, bringing in those wintry showers, a

dusting of snow possible, but drying out through the afternoon. Still the

increasing breeze and a high of just two or three Celsius in some parts

but feeling more like freezing with the wind. A cloudy night tonight,

Maura the chance of a dusting of snow over high ground. -- more of a

chance. We could see sleet or even snow on Saturday. The cold

north-easterly wind will stay with us tomorrow and Saturday. Still

quite a windy day on Sunday, sleet and snow. The outlook, Sunday

will turn a bit less cold again. All the way up seven Celsius.

At this time of year we can often get the weather stories that reflect

the battle between winter and spring, and that's what's