09/01/2017 Spotlight

Good evening. for the news where you are.

An outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed at the famous

Nine swans tested positive for the H5N8 strain of the disease.

And tonight, another case of the illness in a wild bird has

emerged on an RSPB reserve near Powderham Castle in Devon.

Last month, the government ordered poultry farmers to take precautions

to try to stop the spread of the virus.

Confirmation of the presence of the bird flu virus

here at Abbotsbury Swannery came after ten dead swans

were sent for tests - nine tested positive for the H5N8

It is not a threat to humans generally, that has been confirmed,

so that is the good thing, but it is a very serious

It does strike the young ones particularly very hard.

So far this winter, around 80 swans have been found dead,

double the usual number for the winter period.

Tonight, government scientists are stressing that the current

strain of bird flu does not pose a risk to people.

This is a very serious disease of birds, but the good thing is that

it's not causing any concerns to human health, so we need people

to keep this disease out of their kept birds,

whether it's in their back yard or in a full-scale,

At the start of December, the government ordered poultry farms

like this one near Weymouth to bring their free range

hens indoors and to take precautions in a bid to stop

They say they are disappointed that DEFRA did not tell them

about the presence of the virus a few miles away.

We heard that from our vet that we liaise with and over social media.

Already, keeping their hens indoors has led to a substantial

20% of what we normally get, so for us financially,

The measures imposed to try to restrict the spread

of bird flu will be enforced until February 28th.

The swannery is closed at the moment for its normal winter break,

but are hoping the bird flu virus will have run its course by the time

So how do our poultry farmers protect their birds from avian

flu, particularly those with free range status?

Tonight, Johnny Rutherford has been at one farm near Saltash.

At this chicken farm, 18,500 free range chickens have been

I'm going to have a quick look at them.

First I have to dip my feet in some disinfectant mixture

The owner of the chicken farm is Ian.

Free range chickens, we can see them there,

but they are not allowed out so they are not really

At the moment, we have to keep them in by law.

They are used to going outside, so by keeping them in,

unfortunately it means the birds get stressed and we have to do

things to try and prevent them getting stressed.

What concerns me slightly is the fact that some people

don't seem to realise, particularly people with backyard

flocks, that they need to keep them shut in.

If they catch the disease, if a neighbour of mine gets

the disease in their backyard chickens, it would mean

all of my chickens would have to be culled as ta contagious flock

You have to keep them in until the end of February, is that right?

At the moment, that is the date that has been set.

If there are not any more cases, hopefully that will be the date.

If there are, I guess that date will be reviewed as well.

Lots of concerns across the industry and hopefully this

In 2015, Josh Clayton went missing whilst working

He was last seen at a party and ten days later, his body

Today, at an inquest, his death was described as a mystery

with no signs of drowning or of an attack.

From Plymouth coroners court, here's John Danks.

Josh Clayton was last seen at around 1.45 on the morning

He had been at a party on Tresco where he worked.

Ten days after his disappearance, his body was discovered on a small

island north of Tresco, but how he died still

A forensic pathologist said there were no obvious signs

Neither were there signs of drowning.

He recorded the cause of death as an ascertained.

Toxicology reports found no trace of drugs in Josh's system.

He had consumed alcohol that evening, equivalent of 2.5

The family's barrister asked the pathologist if a bloodstained

No, said the pathologist, this wasn't a criminal investigation.

Asked if it was possible that an assault may have taken place, no,

came the reply, but there was no sign of one.

Josh's family travelled down from Taunton for the inquest,

A young mother from Devon, who had a rare and aggressive form

We featured Kim Jenkins on Spotlight just a couple

of days before Christmas, after her local community raised

thousands of pounds to help pay for pioneering treatment abroad.

Her husband Tom has posted a tribute on social media saying she passed

away on Saturday night peacefully and with great honour.

The government has announced a new contract -

worth more than a quarter of a billion pounds -

The deal will see the company, previously known as Agusta Westland,

providing service and support for the UK military's

The government says it will safeguard up to 500 jobs,

but the union says it does little to safeguard the long-term

It's all about these helicopters, the Wildcat, 62 of which were made

in Yeovil for service in the British Navy and Army.

Now the contract is valued at ?271 million and it's

essentially for the maintenance of the helicopters for

Actually, what was announced today was just the latest stage

of a 30-year contract that was signed back in 2012,

so critics argue it is really recycling old news and that in any

case, what this place really needs is new orders for new aircraft.

And yet, last year, the Ministry of Defence decided not to let

Leonardo build the new Apache attack helicopter, preferring

Of course that went to America and this almost feels

All the aircraft in this production shed are here

Right now there are no new orders, but the company says it is talking

No firm orders yet, but like any business such as ours we know

where the customer is and we know what the requirements are and we're

working very hard to land those orders this year.

There remains a question mark over the equipment used to make

the airframes for the Wildcat, amid suggestions that could be moved

to a factory in Poland, even though the equipment is owned

The minister says no decision has been made yet.

Plymouth Argyle will have a home draw in the Fourth Round of the FA

Cup IF they can get past Liverpool next week.

The Pilgrims' reward for knocking out the Premier League giants

would be a visit from Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers, who

Plymouth's third round replay against Liverpool is at

I think that is a bit of a task that we have on our hands,

but anything can happen in the FA Cup, as you can see,

and I think we are really happy to have a home draw.

Wolves are a massive club and they are bound

Hopefully they will, hopefully we get that far

and it will be a great, great occasion again.

Getting cold. Quite a big drop in the temperatures this week. Not too

bad at the moment but each day this week, it will gradually get colder

by the time we get to Friday, temperatures just above freezing. It

will turn much colder and some of the showers by the end of the week

will be wintry, not just over high ground. We have low pressure in

charge, this was the rain we saw earlier which has now moved into

northern France. Behind it, another one will follow. The big change

happens as we move into Wednesday and Thursday. We start to see the

air, Iceland, Queensland group towards us into Wednesday and

Thursday and once this system travels through Scotland and head

south, that is the really cold air. Once that gets to the south, it

opens the door to cold air and to the risk of those wintry showers.

For the moment the temperatures are above freezing. They will stay that

way. Overnight we have some clear sky but another dry nights and with

the winds from the North West week could see temperatures of three or 4

degrees. Tomorrow we have a lot of cloud and it will bring outbreaks of

rain through the day which will move away from the afternoon. Cloudy

skies but temperatures of ten or 11 degrees. Wednesday is a bit colder.

If you showers are possible through the day but in general it is mainly

dry in the second half of the afternoon. Thursday, the cold air

begins to arrive, some sleep. Friday, more wintry showers. Weather

and travel updates on your BBC local radio station from 6am. From Bass,

good night. precipitation we get will be of a

wintry nation and Thursday is one we have to watch out for. The weekend

outlook, it stays chilly with a northerly