France Confirms 1st Case of Bird Flu

[Last Child of Ungoliant]

The death of a wild duck had been confirmed as France's first case of the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu.

The French Agriculture Ministry said the country's food safety agency, AFSSA, had confirmed the presence of a highly pathogenic H5N1 virus on the duck found dead in the town of Joyeux, near Lyon, on Monday.

It is the closest case so far to the UK of the lethal H5N1 strain, which is responsible for the deaths of 91 people in Asia and Turkey.

While humans have so far only contracted the disease directly from birds, scientists fear H5N1 could mutate into a form easily passed between humans and spark a human flu pandemic.

The announcement in France comes as the disease spreads throughout Europe, raising fears it will soon come to the UK.

In Austria, authorities are ordering all poultry to be kept indoors following strong indications that a wild swan found dead in the capital Vienna would test positive for H5N1.

Germany announced another 28 wild birds had been found to have the deadly strain of bird flu, with hundreds more being tested.

Greece, Italy and Slovenia have also notified outbreaks, and results are awaited on samples from Austria and Hungary sent to the EU's testing laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey.

Outside Europe, India announced its first cases of H5N1 in chickens after 30,000 birds died in the past two weeks in Navapur, Maharashtra, and some tested positive for the disease.

The British Government has admitted it is likely bird flu would spread to the UK.

Animal health minister Ben Bradshaw tried to reassure the public that the discovery of the disease in wild birds would not damage the poultry industry, or see a repeat of the foot-and-mouth disease disaster. "Most of our big poultry organisations and businesses are very careful about disease spreading. They have very strict rules about who comes on and off and they have, I think, very good contingency plans."

The Government has drawn up plans to set up one-mile exclusion zones if a wild bird is found to be infected with the deadly strain.

Inside the zone, all poultry movements would be halted, and if any poultry was found to be infected the entire flock would face being culled.