First bird flu case confirmed at UK farm

London, Nov. 17: For the first time in six years, a case of bird flu has been confirmed at a duck breeding farm in the UK, prompting authorities to kill all 6,000 birds there and establish a 10km exclusion zone, even as the government today dismissed any risk to humans. The UK’s department for environment, food and rural affairs said the risk to public health was very low as it emerged that around 6,000 birds will be culled and a 10- km exclusion zone is in place near the farm in East Yorkshire.

The exact strain has not been confirmed but the H5N1 form, deadly to humans, has been ruled out by DEFRA officials. The bird flu virus spreads between birds and, in rare cases, can affect humans. The case is the first in the UK since 2008, when chickens on a farm in Oxfordshire tested positive for the virus.

The government’s chief veterinary officer, Nigel Gibbens, said officials were looking at any possible links to outbreaks of bird flu in the Netherlands and Germany. “That will include looking at the risk from wild bird spread to our national flock,” he said. Dutch authorities on Sunday banned the transport of poultry nationwide after the discovery of the “highly pathogenic” form of avian influenza. “The link to the disease that they found in Germany and the Netherlands is our most likely source, public health England has said with this strain there is not a risk to public health,” Gibbens said.