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BIRD FLU: Deadly Strain of Asian Bird Flu Arrives on Europe's Doorstep

Posted on: Friday, 14 October 2005, 06:00 CDT

By Steve Connor Science Editor

A lethal strain of bird flu that has killed 60 people in south- east Asia has appeared on the doorstep of Europe.

British scientists yesterday confirmed that an outbreak of bird flu on a poultry farm in Turkey was caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of influenza.

Tests have revealed that a second outbreak in Romania was also caused by the H5 type of virus, but scientists are waiting to confirm whether it is the same subtype responsible for the epidemic among poultry in Asia.

Government officials played down the increase in risks to British poultry farmers, saying that a contingency plan had been put in place to tackle an outbreak. Debby Reynolds, the chief veterinary officer at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said that a new risk assessment would be made once she had consulted experts on migrating birds, which are thought to have brought the H5N1 virus to Turkey. 'It's the first time that this virus, which has been found in Asia, Russia, Mongolia and China, has been found so close to Europe,' Dr Reynolds said.

'There is a risk to the UK, we've always said there was. We said the risk is low and we'll update that after we've taken full advice from the bird-migration people.'

The Dutch government has already ordered all poultry farmers to bring their stock indoors to lessen the risk infection by wild birds but Dr Reynolds said that Britain would not follow suit. 'Keepers should feed and water their birds indoors wherever possible. That does reduce the likelihood of infection,' Dr Reynolds said. 'But housing birds would be a very serious step and it's not one to be taken lightly. '

The outbreak on a turkey farm in Balikesir, north-western Anatolia, was detected on 1 October and Turkish officials informed the European Union last Sunday. All of the farm's 1,800 turkeys, which were kept outside, were destroyed.

Scientists at the Government's Veterinary Laboratory Agency in Weybridge, Surrey, an EU reference laboratory for bird flu, confirmed yesterday that the outbreak was caused by the same H5N1 strain that had spread among poultry in Asia.

Dr Reynolds said that the outbreak in Turkey did not affect the contingency plan already in place to eradicate the virus should it spread to British poultry. 'We would immediately respond to stamp out the infection. We've got the measures set out in our contingency plan. Culling is one part of the story,' Dr Reynolds said.

Professor Maria Zambon, head of the national influenza laboratory at the Health Protection Agency, said there was no need for the Government to change its existing policy.

'The risks are unchanged by this particular event because the question of an avian virus becoming a human virus and capable of human-to-human transmission requires quite considerable genetic change,' Professor Zambon said.

There have been at least 117 cases of avian flu infecting people in the current outbreak in Asia; nearly all of the patients had direct physical contact with live birds. Scientists fear, however, that the longer this virus circulates among birds the greater the chance of it mutating into a form that is capable of transmitting more easily from person to person. 'We don't understand exactly what could be required to make avian virus a fully human virus,' Professor Zambon said.

However, she dismissed suggestions that the outbreaks in Turkey and possibly Romania automatically increased the risk of a human pandemic.

'The fact that those birds are in Romania as opposed to south- east Asia doesn't change the threat to the human population,' Professor Zambon said. 'The risk of that virus becoming a human virus is the same whether it's in Romanian or whether it's in south- east Asia.'

Professor Zambon also dismissed the suggestion that the Government was being complacent. 'It would be quite wrong to say there is no perception of risk and no planning for an eventual pandemic,' she told journalists.

Source: Independent, The; London (UK)

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