The strain of bird flu discovered at a duck farm in northern England is the same highly contagious type seen in outbreaks in Germany and the Netherlands.
"The strain has now been confirmed as H5N8, which is a very low risk to human health and no risk to the food chain," the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said in a statement on Tuesday (local time).
Some 6000 ducks are being culled at the breeding farm in east Yorkshire following the confirmation of the outbreak on Sunday, and a 10 km restriction zone has been put up around the site.
News that authorities are dealing with the same subtype of a highly infectious strain of bird flu as seen in continental Europe will increase speculation that the outbreaks are linked.
WHO braces for flu spread
The World Health Organization has urged vigilance, but whether the virus will spread to humans remains unclear, the UN health agency said on Tuesday (local time).
"We should all be quite vigilant," Elizabeth Mumford, a scientist with the WHO's Global Influenza Program, told reporters in Geneva.
Responding to questions, she said she "absolutely" expected more bird flocks getting sick.
She stressed the importance of culling sick birds and monitoring fever in humans who have been in contact with sick birds to ensure any possible human infections are spotted.
WHO said the virus had most likely moved from Asia to Europe with migratory wild birds.
Several hundred thousand birds, mainly ducks, have been culled over the last two months because of a South Korean outbreak.
So far, no cases of human infection have been detected, either in Asia or in Europe, Mumford said.
She acknowledged though that "influenza viruses are very unpredictable, and it's very difficult to tell what a new virus will do".
AFP
source: newshub archive
