Dead British parrot had deadly H5N1 bird flu

[Eugene]

Dead British parrot had deadly H5N1 bird flu
Sun Oct 23, 2005 3:33 PM ET

By Mike Peacock

LONDON (Reuters) - A parrot that died in quarantine in Britain has
been found to have the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the agriculture
ministry said on Sunday, and the spread of the virus meant the country
was now at greater risk.

A spokeswoman for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
confirmed that scientists had found "the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus"
in the parrot.

"The closest match is to a strain found in ducks in China earlier this
year," the ministry spokesman said.

<snip>

Debbie Reynolds, Britain's chief veterinary official, told reporters
during a teleconference that the parrot likely caught the virus while
in the quarantine center where it was kept with the Taiwanese birds.

Her staff reviewed the global threat and determined "there is a high
risk of further global dispersion of this virus".

<snip>

Full article: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=globalNews&storyID=2005-10-23T193226Z_01_FOR172568_RTRUKOC_0_US-BIRDFLU-BRITAIN.xml