Swan Tested for Lethal Flu Strain

Tests are continuing today to determine whether a dead swan in Scotland is carrying H5N1, the most lethal strain of the bird flu virus, as it emerged that the bird was discovered more than a week ago.

The bird, which was found in the coastal Fife village of Cellardyke, about nine miles from St Andrews, has tested positive for the H5 avian flu virus. If it tests positive for H5N1, which can infect humans, the swan will be the first wild bird in Britain to be discovered carrying the virus.

Speaking at the harbour today, Sergeant Martin Johncock of Fife police, said the decomposed body of the bird had been taken away for tests last Wednesday. The Scottish Executive confirmed yesterday that the bird was carrying the "highly pathogenic" H5 virus.

Authorities have set up a protection zone around Cellardyke, with a minimum radius of 1.8 miles (3km), as well as a surveillance zone of six miles. In London, the Cabinet Office activated its emergency committee, Cobra.

Germany today reported its first case of bird flu in commercial poultry. The infection, on a poultry farm in the eastern state of Saxony, is the second in the EU; the first was in France in February.

The man who found the swan in Cellardyke, Dan Young, a researcher at St Andrews University, said he had been alerted by a friend, who thought a heron was lying in the harbour.

Mr Young said: "I went and had a look and it was obviously not a heron. It looked to me like a swan. I contacted Defra [the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] and within an hour the duty vet got back to me asking where it was and saying they would pick it up."

Birdkeepers in the protection zone have been instructed to isolate their flocks from wild birds by taking them indoors wherever possible, and measures to restrict the movement of poultry, eggs and poultry products from these zones have been put into effect.

Mr Johncock said: "We are stopping vehicles which could be used to carry any form of poultry or poultry products such as eggs which could potentially come from infected birds within the area. There are no large bird-rearing areas or anything similar in this particular area but we are just making sure that everything just stays confined until we hear the results of the test."

He said it was hoped the results of the tests being conducted by scientists and vets would emerge today.

Dutch scientists warned today that domestic cats were much more likely to catch bird flu and spread the disease than had previously been thought.

Writing in the Nature journal, the scientists said not enough was being done to monitor cats, dogs and other carnivores for their possible role in transmitting the disease.

They urged people who lived in areas where the H5N1 virus had infected poultry and other birds to keep cats indoors. Cats can contract the virus either by eating infected meat or through close contact with other cats.

The Scottish Executive said if the disease was H5N1 more restrictions might be put in place, such as housing and movement controls.

By coincidence, yesterday Defra was conducting its first national emergency simulation of procedures in the event of a bird flu outbreak. The UK's chief veterinary officer, Debby Reynolds, said she had curtailed Exercise Hawthorn "to ensure that we can bring all our resources to bear on this situation".

"We are already in a high state of readiness, and I have every confidence that officials north and south of the border will work together to manage this incident successfully."

Tony Blair, who was in Northern Ireland last night, was informed by Scotland's first minister, Jack McConnell. A Downing Street spokesman said the government had put its emergency plan into action.

In a statement, the executive said: "Avian influenza is a disease of birds; whilst it can pass very rarely and with difficulty to humans, this requires extremely close contact with infected birds, particularly faeces."

John Oxford, professor of virology at St Bartholomew's and the Royal London hospital, said the virus could already have begun to spread elsewhere. "It doesn't look too good at this moment," he said. "It needs final confirmation from laboratory tests that it is H5N1 but the fact is it is H5. You can imagine the swan as a piece of litmus paper. A dead swan will indicate some wild bird like a duck has silently infected it, so there will be other wild birds around that are H5 positive."

The government has investigated 40 suspected cases of bird flu in the UK since January. Last month vets did urgent tests to determine whether 100 dead chickens at an Orkney farm were the first in Britain infected with the deadly strain.