UK Bird Flu

A Swan in Scotland has been confirmed to have had H5N1. It's been dead for over a week, and been eaten at by various animals. The Scottish Executive will b eholding a news conference at 4pm UK time.

Two other swans have been found dead in Richmond Park in Glasgow. Tests are being carried out, but no news yet...

The autohorities tell us that a parrot died in quarantine. It turns out that 53, yes 53 birds actually died. Sounds like a bit more of an outbreak than they were telling us. Does this mean that some were released? Are there birds with the flu loose in the bird markets?

Two other tourists returning to Reunion from Taiwan are now testing positive for H5N1.

Batten down the hatches...

A traveler returning to the French island Reunion from Thailand has been diagnosed with H5N1. It's not clear yet how the person caught the virus, nor whether anyone else on the planes he/she had travelled on are showing symptoms.

update: The tourist had been to Thailand on holiday between 12th-19th October and was exposed to the virus, it is assumed, durign a trip to a bird park. If this is a true assessment, then it's quite worrying, as the guy was unlikely to have been closely handling the birds, which is the only way we are being told it is transmissable at the moment.

Bird shows and fairs in the UK are to be stopped, unless a risk assessment indicate sthat it wouldn't be a problem. The move was announced by Patricia Hewitt in a speech to Parliament today. She also said that we shouldn't eat raw eggs, and ensure that chicken is fully cooked.

It has been confirmed that the dead birds found in Croatia recently did die of H5N1. With the news, it seems more and more likely that H5N1 is spreadiung without much hinderance.

One interesting point I read the other day was that all of the known pandemics started and were in full flow before the end of October. That's not to say that a pandemic cannot happen later, but there might be social reasons for this - colder, darker nights, people less liklely to be out and about etc.

The EU has announced that it is goinmg to impose a ban on wild bird imports to the EU. This will not effect chickens and the like, but caged birds such as parrots.

Stop the Mony Python sketch tributes, but the parrot that died in UK quarantine has been confirmed to have died from the H5N1 strain. All other birds in the same section have been destroyed, and staff are being checked for any symptoms of Bird Flu.

As this was in quarantine, the UK authorities are still claiming Bird Flu free status. Hmmm.

A parrot in quarantine in the UK has died of regular avian flu (H5, NOT H5N1). There seems to be a bit of concedn about this, but in reality, although rare in the UK (first case since 1992), it is not the strain that is feared for pandemic, and the bird concerned was in quarantine, so has had limited affect on any other animals or people.

The dead birds found on a Greek island have tested negative for H5N1, despite earlier reports of a positive test. One thing this shows is how jumpy the authorities and media are about the whole situation.