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UPDATE:

Bird flu found in parrot in British quarantine

By Andrew Gray LONDON (Reuters) - A parrot that died in quarantine in Britain had contracted bird flu but officials do not yet know if it was the lethal strain which has sparked alarm in Europe in recent weeks, the Agriculture Ministry said on Friday.

Traces of the highly pathogenic H5 avian flu virus were found in the parrot imported from Suriname, South America, and held with other birds from Taiwan, a ministry statement said.

"We've got a lot of work going on in investigating the background to this very important development," Britain's chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds said. "The parrot was in quarantine (and) the birds have been culled in quarantine."

The government said it did not yet know if the virus was of the H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries since breaking out in late 2003 in South Korea.

It has now reached as far west as European Russia, Turkey and Romania, tracking the paths of migratory birds.

H5N1 has triggered widespread concern because it can transfer to humans in some cases, although only if they have had prolonged and close contact with infected birds, and some experts fear it could mutate to transfer between humans.

Reynolds said it should take a "small number of days" to determine whether the parrot had H5N1. It would be the first case of the strain recorded in Britain, although the parrot was not officially inside the country as it was in quarantine.

Hugh Pennington, a leading microbiologist, said bird flu posed no risk to human health in Britain for now and the case should be simple to tackle as the parrot had been in quarantine.

"It should be very, very easy to nip this particular problem in the bud as we have done in the past with bird flu," he said.

"Bird flu comes to Britain every now and then and it's always been controlled ... by a slaughter policy of birds who the infected birds have met and it hasn't spread into the general bird population of the country," he told BBC News 24 television.

The parrot was part of a mixed consignment of 148 birds that arrived on September 16, the ministry said. They were held with another consignment of 216 birds from Taiwan.

An official with Suriname's Ministry for Natural Resources said the government had not issued any permits for export of animals to England this year, adding veterinary specialists checked birds' health before granting such permits.

The bird had been held in a secure quarantine unit and all the birds there were being culled, Britain's ministry said.

The small number of people who had been in contact with the birds were receiving antiviral treatment as a precautionary measure, the statement added.

"It is very difficult for humans to contract avian influenza. However, the necessary actions to protect human health have been taken in this instance," the ministry said.

"The confirmed case does not affect the UK's official disease-free status because the disease has been identified in imported birds during quarantine," Reynolds said.

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Avian Flu Updates

It's Flying Westward

Sweden confirms case of bird flu

Hindustan Times, October 22d, 2005: "Sweden confirmed at least one case of bird flu late on Saturday, but said it was not yet known if it was the deadly strain that has swept through Asia."

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Scientists try to identify bird flu strains found in Croatia, Sweden, Britain

Canadian Press, October 22d, 2005: LONDON (AP) - Scientists were conducting tests Saturday to determine whether bird flu cases discovered in Britain, Sweden and Croatia are the lethal strain that has killed more than 60 people, as countries around the world scrambled to halt the spread of the virus.

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Bird flu drugs to be kept safe in secret hideaways

Sunday Star-Times October 23rd, 2005: The (New Zealand)government will soon have 850,000 doses of the anti-viral medicine Tamiflu in secret "secure locations" around the country ready for an influenza pandemic.

The procedure for distributing the drug has yet to be finalised but the Health Ministry says if an isolated outbreak occurs it will be used to ringfence the sick and those close to them.

The ministry says about 60,000 front line health workers, police, custom officials and civil defence workers will be eligible for a dose of Tamiflu as soon as they show symptoms of the disease. No one will get a course of the antiviral drug to be taken preventively.

If an outbreak occurs in many centres or across the country then the Tamiflu will be distributed through 80 temporary facilities to those who are sick and meet criteria. They will either be assessed for eligibility by a GP or nurse at a community assessment centres or by telephone."

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Call for ban on wild bird trade in flu alert

Telegraph.co.uk, October 23rd, 2005: Public health experts fear that exotic birds smuggled into Britain will provide the "Trojan horse" for the spread of deadly avian flu.

The warning came as scientists carried out more tests on a batch of parrots and other exotic birds culled on Friday after the discovery of the country's first case of the H5 strain of the virus."

A vet examines a "Polly the parrot" at a zoo in in Rome

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Armed police to guard bird flu drugs

The Independent (UK) October 23rd, 2005: "Armed police are to guard stocks of drugs used to fight bird flu as part of emergency measures if a pandemic hits Britain, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

The drugs will be handed out at chemists and specialist walk-in centres to prevent doctors being overwhelmed by demand.

The new measures, contained in Department of Health documents, follow a realisation that the health service will be unable to cope as the virus sweeps through the country.

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New bird flu cases emerge

ABC Online, Australia - October 23rd, 2005:As Russia and Sweden report new cases of bird flu, "Red" China says it will close its borders if it finds a single case of human-to-human transmission.

China's sheer size and its attempts to conceal the SARS epidemic in 2003 have prompted fears among some experts that it has had more bird flu cases than officially recorded.

Russian authorities say they have uncovered more cases of bird flu in the Urals and are investigating a suspected outbreak in the Altai region close to the Kazakh border.

Bosnia banned the import of poultry from neighbouring Croatia and also forbade the transport of wild fowl and poultry and the slaughter and sale of poultry in outdoor markets.

Italy said it was banning imports of live poultry of any species and all related products from Croatia, Romania and other Balkan countries.

Slovenia, also a neighbour of Croatia, prohibited outdoor poultry breeding in one part of the country in line with the EU regulations."

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Thai boy with bird flu has fully recovered: health officials

CBC News, Canada, October 22nd, 2005: BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - "Public health officials have ruled out human-to-human transmission of bird flu in a seven-year-old boy whose father died of the disease last week, a senior Thai health official said Saturday, adding that the boy has fully recovered.

Ronarit Benphat no longer has a fever or lung infection, but doctors will monitor him for two more weeks, said Dr. Thawat Suntrajarn, director-general of the Department of Communicable Disease Control."

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Map /H5N1 Outbreaks as of 8-30-05 Major Flyways of Migratory Birds