Bird flu will undoubtedly hit Britain, veterinary group warns

AVIAN flu will “undoubtedly” be carried to Britain by migrating birds, the president of the British Veterinary Association warned yesterday.

The virus, which can infect poultry, has already spread into Russia.

Dr Bob McCracken said: “Wild birds that have migratory pathways over Europe and the UK will become infected. It is inevitable that bird flu will be carried to this country by migrating birds.”

He called for testing to be stepped up to stop the virus spreading across Britain’s bird population.

He said water fowl such as ducks and geese would be most at risk of catching the virus from migrating birds.

Free range poultry could also be exposed, while chickens and other farmed birds are at less risk.

“The majority of our reared birds are still intensively reared and bred in large houses that are wild bird-proof. The danger is to free range birds and to backyard flocks,” he said.

He called for more targeted testing of free range birds and wild fowl on the flight paths of migrating birds.

The Dutch government has ordered chickens kept indoors to stop them catching bird flu from wild fowl. Dr McCracken said it was not necessary for Britain to follow suit at this stage, providing adequate surveillance was in place.

A Defra spokesman confirmed that British officials were present at yesterday’s meeting in Brussels.

He repeated that Britain was not advising action similar to that of the Dutch as yet “as we don’t think such action would be proportionate to the risk”.

“We would urge poultry keepers to maintain high levels of biosecurity, as we would at any time,” he said

Philip Tod, European Commission spokesman for health and consumer protection, told BBC Breakfast it was hoped the veterinary experts would recommend ways of stepping up surveillance of wild birds and poultry.

Mr Tod said there was a risk from bird flu - but added: “... it is still 3,000 kilometres from our borders at this stage, and we have measures in place, for some time, to guard against that, in the form of import bans from the countries affected, in the form of surveillance in the European Union, and a range of measures to prepare ourselves in the event of a flu pandemic.”

He said it was understandable that the Dutch had acted as they had.

An outbreak of bird flu in 2003 led to the destruction of 30 million birds, at a direct economic cost of €150 million. Holland is the seventh-biggest producer of eggs in the EU.

Many experts have warned a global flu pandemic is almost inevitable, a case of “when” not “if”.

It is feared that up to 50 million people around the world could die in a flu outbreak, including more than 50,000 in Britain. There has been criticism of the British Government for not stockpiling enough flu vaccine to combat the virus if a pandemic breaks out.