CHICKENS on a poultry farm in Norfolk are to be slaughtered after dead birds on the premises tested positive for a highly infectious strain of bird flu.
Official results indicated it was the H7 strain and not the H5N1 variation, which has killed more than 100 people worldwide, but biologists say it could still present risks to human health.
The H7 variation spreads very easily between birds and wreaked havoc with the Dutch poultry industry in 2003 when more than 30 million birds, over a third of the country's poultry stocks, were culled at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds.
Previous outbreaks of the strain have caused illness in humans, but have not been as severe as those caused by the H5N1 strain.
Professor Jangu Banatvala of London University, speaking on Sky News last night, said:
"H5N1 can infect people who come in close contact with the birds and the same is true about the H7 strain."
He added that there are up to 16 varieties of bird flu, so he was "not surprised" to hear of this latest outbreak.
Source
Official results indicated it was the H7 strain and not the H5N1 variation, which has killed more than 100 people worldwide, but biologists say it could still present risks to human health.
The H7 variation spreads very easily between birds and wreaked havoc with the Dutch poultry industry in 2003 when more than 30 million birds, over a third of the country's poultry stocks, were culled at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds.
Previous outbreaks of the strain have caused illness in humans, but have not been as severe as those caused by the H5N1 strain.
Professor Jangu Banatvala of London University, speaking on Sky News last night, said:
"H5N1 can infect people who come in close contact with the birds and the same is true about the H7 strain."
He added that there are up to 16 varieties of bird flu, so he was "not surprised" to hear of this latest outbreak.
Source