Q&A: Bird flu in the UK

The virus is contracted through close contact to poultry

Concerns over the possibility of a bird flu outbreak in Britain have been raised after a parrot that died in quarantine in the UK tested positive for most lethal strain of the virus - H5N1.

The BBC News website looks at the latest events and the potential risk to humans.

Q: How has the UK been affected?

A parrot imported from Surinam, South America, has been found to have the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which is potentially lethal to humans, after it died in quarantine in the UK.

This variant of the disease is known to have killed at least 60 people in Asia.

The parrot was part of a mixed consignment of 148 parrots and "soft bills" that arrived on 16 September and died on 16 October. They were also in quarantine with a consignment of 216 birds from Taiwan.

These along with all the other birds in the quarantine unit have been culled.

A spokesman said the closest match to the disease was found in ducks in China earlier this year.

Q: Is the UK now at risk?

As the diseased bird was in quarantine, the UK's disease-free status is not affected.

UK chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds said the incident "showed the importance of the UK's quarantine system".

Experts have said people in the UK are at "very low risk" of developing the disease at present.

Although 60 people have died from the H5N1 strain in South East Asia, it is thought only people living in very close proximity to birds are likely to become infected.

However, the fear is that the strain will mutate with a human flu virus and spread throughout the population.

This could happen if a human had both infections at the same time.

The Health Protection Agency estimates that if a flu outbreak did reach the UK around a quarter of the population could be affected, with possibly 50,000 deaths.

However, a bird flu expert from Aberdeen University, Professor Hugh Pennington, said there was no need for any anxiety.

"It's not a threat to the British population.

"It's not a threat to the poultry or to the turkeys... I would be surprised if it had caught it from a migratory bird, so it's an interesting development, but not one that should cause any public anxiety at all."

What steps has the government taken?

The government has published plans on how to cope with a possible flu pandemic.

This includes the purchase of about 14.6m courses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu - enough to treat around a quarter of the UK's population.

The drug reduces the severity of flu symptoms and can also mean the length of illness is shortened.

Ministers have also arranged for 2-3 million doses of H5N1 vaccine which could offer some protection against the virus.

GPs have been sent guidance on how to manage an outbreak. This includes the priorities for who should receive anti-flu drugs in the event of a pandemic.

Health secretary Patricia Hewitt has said Britain is one of the best prepared countries to deal with a pandemic of bird flu.

Ms Hewitt told the House of Commons Britain was doing all it should be to prepare for any future outbreak. She said: "I'm satisfied that we are making exactly the preparations that we need."

What else is being done?

British scientists are also travelling to South East Asia to investigate how bird flu could be tackled in the future.

Experts from the Medical Research Council (MRC), led by Professor Colin Blakemore, are visiting China, Vietnam and Hong Kong to find out more about the disease.

Their findings on how to tackle an outbreak of the virus will be presented to an international conference in London in December.

Professor Blakemore had said it is "almost certain" that avian flu would reach the UK.

"How we deal with it will depend on how well we are preparing now."

Peter Dukes, head of immunity and infection at the Medical Research Council, said identifying how the disease mutates was crucial in making an effective vaccine.

"What the experts say is that there isn't just one kind of the virus that's called H5N1, and if we took the virus that has appeared in a relatively small number of people in South East Asia, if we took that virus and made a vaccine against it... it wouldn't necessarily protect us against whatever may ultimately emerge as the virus adapts itself to the human population.

Q: Is it possible to stop bird flu coming into Britain?

The fear, after cases in Turkey and Romania, is that the deadly H5N1 form of the virus will spread across Europe.

Tests are also being carried out on birds in Croatia and Greece.

Because it is carried by wild birds, there is no way of preventing its spread.

But that does not mean it will be passed to domestic flocks. Experts say proper poultry controls - such as preventing wild birds getting in to poultry houses - which are in operation in the UK, should prevent that happening.

In addition, they say monitoring of the migratory patterns of wild birds should provide early alerts of the arrival of infected flocks - meaning they could be targeted on arrival.

Click here to find the latest information from the WHO on the numbers infected and killed by avian flu.