Bird flu alert as dead swans test positive for H5N1 strain
Pastor Dale Morgan
Bird flu alert as dead swans test positive for H5N1 strain*
By RUSSELL JACKSON
The Scotsman
SCOTLAND - THREE swans have been found dead with the virulent H5N1
strain of bird flu, it emerged yesterday.
Other birds are being tested at Abbotsbury Swannery, near Weymouth, but
officials have so far ruled out a cull.
A member of staff found the mute swans in the Chesil Beach beauty-spot
area of the county during routine surveillance three days ago.
Last night, a control area had been set up, within which bird owners
must isolate their flocks from wild birds.
Officials are working to determine how the virus spread. No disease has
been found in domestic birds, and a wild-bird surveillance programme is
to be carried out.
Deadly H5 is one of the most contagious strains of flu among birds – but
the chances of human infection in the UK are said to be extremely low.
In March 2006, a whooper swan found dead in the harbour at Cellardyke,
near Anstruther, Fife, tested positive for H5N1.
Acting chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said: "Our message to all
bird-keepers is that they must be vigilant." The Prime Minister, Gordon
Brown, insisted the government would do "everything we can" to stop the
spread of infection. He added: "We have had to deal with this issue
before and we have placed protection zones around the affected area."
An expert on infectious diseases said the latest outbreak may have been
brought to the UK by migrating birds.
Dr Robert Paul Yeo, from Durham University's Wolfson Research Institute,
said: "The source of the bird flu in this case could be migratory birds
over-wintering in the UK.
"The virus is being increasingly detected in birds all over Europe so,
unfortunately, it was not unexpected that it would reappear in the UK.
It reinforces the need for monitoring wild-bird deaths for the presence
of the virus."
A cull has been ruled out because ornithologists fear this may disperse
birds further.
The Department for Food and Rural Affairs has set up two restricted
areas – a wild-bird control area and a larger wild-bird monitoring area.
The control area extends approximately 15 miles to the south-east of
Abbotsbury, and includes the town of Weymouth, Chesil Beach and the
Portland Bill headland.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which has two
wetland nature reserves near Abbotsbury, said it would increase the
surveillance of wild birds on its sites in Dorset, Devon and Somerset.
Dr Mark Avery, the RSPB's director of conservation, said: "We are facing
yet another outbreak of bird flu; this time the circumstances are
consistent with the disease arriving in wild birds.
"Worldwide, this virus has been transmitted via a variety of routes,
only one of which is through the movement of wild birds. Others include
poultry movements, direct human transfer and the wild-bird trade, which
is now banned in the European Union."
Dr Avery said it was still unclear how the virus had arrived in Dorset. "It
is unlikely to have involved the swans directly, as this population is
highly sedentary," he said.
The Abbotsbury Swannery is a reserve for free-flying swans and wild
birds and is part of an internationally important wetland. Records of a
swannery on the site date back to 1354.
It has been closed to the public for the winter since October and is due
to reopen on March 15.
John Houston, from Abbotsbury Swannery, which holds 600 swans, said
staff were working closely with Defra officials. He said: "We are very
concerned, but we have been encouraged by Defra's comments about
outbreaks in wild ducks. In those, experience has been a very low
mortality of the ducks, and almost immediately there has been a build-up
of immunity to the virus within the ducks."
He said staff entering the site were wearing protective suits, and
removing them and disinfecting themselves on leaving.