Brits on high alert as bird flu kills thousands of turkeys

British health officials have confirmed that the avian flu virus which killed 2,600 turkeys at a farm in Lowestoft, Suffolk was indeed the H5N1 virus.

This means the remaining 159,000 turkeys on the farm will have to be slaughtered in order to contain the virus.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the European Commission conducted the virus tests at laboratories in Weybridge, Surrey and they are optimistic that the virus has been contained.

This is first case found on a commercial farm in the UK of the H5N1 virus but experts insist the virus remains essentially one confined to birds which is only transmitted by close contact with sick or infected birds, usually poultry.

Workers at the farm who came into contact with the infected birds will be be offered the anti-viral drug Tamiflu as a precaution but to date no one has developed symptoms.

Dr. Maria Zambon, from the Health Protection Agency says although the strain can be fatal if it is passed on to humans the outbreak was being contained and posed little danger to people.

Apparently none of the affected birds had entered the food chain and there is no risk to public health.

A three-kilometre protection zone and a 10km surveillance zone has been set up around the farm which is approximately 27km south-west of Lowestoft.

According to DEFRA further tests are being carried out to establish if the virus is in fact the Asian strain currently circulating.

DEFRA says tests have shown the virus was the same pathogenic Asian strain found last month in Hungary where an outbreak among geese on a farm prompted the slaughter of thousands of birds.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates this strain of the virus has already killed 165 people worldwide, mainly in south-east Asia, since 2003 and has either killed or caused millions of birds to be culled.

The strain is usually transmitted to poultry by migrating wildfowl, and so far, almost all humans who have been infected worldwide have been in close contact with infected birds.

Experts believe the most likely source of infection is wild birds but at present the vaccination of poultry is not being considered.

It seems the turkeys at the farm were too young to enter the food chain and no birds or produce had moved off the site.

Farmers across the country are being urged to be vigilant and bird gatherings, bird shows and pigeon racing have been banned.

Those most at risk are farmers and their families; last year more than 50,000 chickens were culled after an outbreak of the H7 bird flu in farms in the neighbouring county of Norfolk.

At that time only one farm worker was infected and the disease which appeared as an eye infection, was successfully treated.

In March 2006, a wild swan found dead in Cellardyke, Fife, was also found to have the H5N1 strain of the virus.