MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bird flu 'likely to reach Britain'

The Government has confirmed that bird flu was “likely” to reach UK shores following confirmation that a duck in France died of the disease.

The European Commission said it had been notified by the French authorities of a confirmed case of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5 in a wild duck tested in Ain, near Lyon.

A sample from the duck was being sent to the EU's laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey, to check whether the outbreak is, as expected, a case of the more deadly H5NI virus.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said that consultation with experts had confirmed that the development - the closest reported case of bird flu to the UK - increased the chances of the disease arriving in Britain.

Fred Landeg, Britain's deputy chief veterinary officer, said: "We understand that the French authorities have not yet identified the specific strain, but they are reporting that it is highly pathogenic and bears close similarities to H5N1 Asian strain.

"The expert ornithologists have advised that ducks from the Lyon region do not normally fly to the UK at this time of the year. Yet we know that the pochard duck uses the East Atlantic flyway, which is the same migratory path under which the UK lies.

"We have existing robust surveillance measures in place and have taken over 3500 samples from wild birds, which so far have not detected H5N1 in the UK."

He said Defra would continue to monitor the situation and encouraged the public to report any unusual wild bird deaths.

Authorities in France - the seventh European Union country to be hit by the disease - have already applied emergency containment measures set out at EU level as an obligation on all countries hit by bird flu outbreaks.

Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Germany have notified H5N1 outbreaks, but test results are still awaited on H5 virus samples sent by Austria and Hungary to the EU laboratory in Weybridge. All the outbreaks discovered in the EU so far have involved wild birds - believed to be migratory swans carrying the flu virus.