H5N1 Avian flu virus found in wild swans again in UK

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs imposed control and monitoring areas and restrictions on the movement of poultry in Southern England last night after three wild mute swans tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. Prelimiary testing of the virus genome indicates that is a close match to the one that infected wild birds in the Czech Republic last summer.

The control area extends about 15 miles to the south-east of Abbotsbury, and includes Weymouth, Chesil Beach and the Portland Bill headland. The 20-mile monitoring area also covers Dorchester.

There have been 3 recent H5N1 cases in commercial poultry in Britain:
November 2007 – premises near Diss, Norfolk
February 2007 – premises in Upper Holton, Suffolk
October 2005 – quarantine premises in Essex

This is the second highly pathogenic H5N1 Avian Influenza case detected in a wild bird in the British Isles. The previous case was the swan found in Cellardyke, Fife in April 2006.

This is not good news. See post December 26th 2007 HPAI A(H5N1) = "highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of type A of subtype H5N1" - Cause for concern with new cases reported

Up to press, the highly pathogenic H5N1 (HPH5N1) strain of avian influenza has not been detected in North America wild bird populations , in spite of testing more than 100,000 samples.... More