Live bird trade 'behind spread in avian flu'- Experts

Experts suspect the current spread of bird flu in Asia, Africa and Europe is a result of trade in infected live birds rather than transmission through wild birds, the UN official co-ordinating the global fight against avian influenza said today.

Dr David Nabarro said investigators looking into the cause of a bird flu outbreak at a commercial turkey farm in Britain are now focusing on a possible link with the transfer of partly processed birds from a farm in south-eastern Hungary where there was an outbreak last month.

If there was movement of poultry – either live or dead – from an area where H5N1 bird flu had been found, Nabarro said, “that will be an action which goes against the guidance of the United Nations system and also the guidance of other authorities who have jurisdiction over what goes on".