Nov 13, 2007 11:07 am US/Eastern
UK Officials Confirm Deadly Bird Flu Outbreak
LONDON (CBS) ―
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About 5,000 free-range turkeys, 1,000 ducks and 500 geese on a British farm were being culled due to an avian flu outbreak. (File)
CBS4
An outbreak of bird flu in eastern England is the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease, the government said Tuesday.
The return of the disease in Britain, which had its first mass outbreak of the strain earlier this year, is yet another blow to farmers already struggling after herds were hit this year by foot-and-mouth disease and bluetongue.
Acting chief veterinarian Chief Veterinary Officer Fred Landeg said the source of the outbreak had not yet been identified. He said it was closely related to the strains found in the Czech Republic and Germany over the summer.
Officials said earlier that about 5,000 free-range turkeys, 1,000 ducks and 500 geese on the affected farm were being culled.
If the bird flu spreads, it could devastate the hugely profitable Christmas trade in poultry.
A two-mile protection zone and a six-mile surveillance zone were created around the infected farm, and further restrictions were imposed throughout Suffolk and much of the neighboring county of Norfolk.
The alarm was raised Sunday, after a rise in death rates among the birds, which are owned by poultry producer Gressingham Foods, based in Woodbridge, Suffolk.
Landeg said Britain had successfully eradicated an outbreak of H5N1 in Suffolk earlier this year, which led to the culling of 160,000 turkeys.
"With respect to this outbreak there is still some uncertainty. We are at a very early stage of the investigation, and no two outbreaks of disease are ever the same," he said.
Britain's first case of H5N1 was in a swan in Scotland in 2006. In April 2006, chickens on a farm near Dereham Common, Norfolk, tested positive for the H7 subtype of the virus.
"The more we look for H5, the more we will find," said Juan Lubroth, head of infectious diseases, animal services, at the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, which tracks the disease in birds.
H5N1 has previously been found elsewhere in France, Switzerland, and Germany. Human cases have been recorded in Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Bird flu has killed or prompted the culling of millions of birds worldwide since late 2003, when it first began ravaging Asian poultry stocks. It has killed at least 206 people worldwide since 2003.
According to the CDC and the World Health Organization, there have been no reported cases of people in the United States infected by the H5N1 virus, however there have been 330 cases of infection worldwide since November 2003.
Experts believe most victims were probably infected through direct contact with sick birds.
Bird flu remains difficult for humans to catch. However, experts fear it could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a flu pandemic.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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