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news.Veterinary experts from across the EU met in Brussels yesterday to discuss the possibility of bird flu spreading to Western Europe. The president of the British Veterinary Association said a strain of the H5N1 virus would inevitably be carried into the UK by migrating wild birds.
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As the government sought to play down the risk, saying that there was no need follow the Netherlands’ and Germany’s lead in bringing all poultry flocks indoors, Bob McCracken of the BVA said that it was vital that UK farmers remained alert.
“I don’t believe there is any large risk at this moment in time,” Mr McCracken said in an interview with The Guardian. “But we have to prepare for the fact that the virus will eventually come here.”
European experts have agreed upon a program of precautionary measures to reduce the risk of a bird flu epidemic spreading across the West, which included increasing the surveillance of migratory birds under a system which was put in place in 2003.
Meanwhile, three rare civet cats have died of bird flu at a national park in Vietnam, marking the first time the species has contracted the virus. Epidemiologist from the World Health Organization said the development would not make people more susceptible to bird flu because humans have less contact with civets than poultry.