June 5, 2008

  

UK confirms H7 bird flu strain in free-range farm as highly pathogenic
   

  

The UK's Chief Veterinary Officer confirmed Wednesday (June 4, 2008) that an outbreak of H7 bird flu is highly pathogenic.

 

The virus was confirmed late Tuesday on a 25,000 free-range, egg-laying hen farm in Banbury, central England. All three previous cases of the H7 strain had been low pathogenic.

 

But the virus has been confirmed not to be the virulent H5N1, of which the U.K. has had four previous outbreaks.

 

All the birds in the farm would be culled.

 

The Department for Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said further laboratory tests are in progress to identify the type of virus and possible relationships with previously identified viruses.

 

An epidemiological investigation is also underway to better understand the origin and development of the virus.

 

On the same day, Japan said it was suspending imports of poultry from Britain due to the bird flu case there.

 

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in a statement that the suspension was expected to be a temporary measure aimed at reducing the risk of fresh bird flu outbreaks in Japan.

 

It is not the first time Japan has suspended imports of British poultry due to concerns about bird flu. The last time was in November. That suspension was only lifted last month.

 

Japan saw several outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain in early 2007, leading authorities to kill tens of thousands of chickens as a precaution.