A CHILLING warning has come from the British Veterinary Association that an outbreak avian flu was a question of "when, not if" following the discovery in France of a dead duck carrying the disease.

VIETNAM slaughtered thousands of birds in its two largest cities yesterday while China vowed to vaccinate its entire stock of 14 billion poultry against bird flu, with the government promising to help pay for the process.

Farmers were today anxiously waiting to discover the outcome of tests on a suspected case of foot-and-mouth at a British farm.