Sunday October 23, 07:37 PM
LONDON (
Reuters) - A parrot that died in quarantine in Britain has been found to have the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu, the agriculture ministry said on Sunday.
A ministry spokeswoman 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," she said.
The parrot, imported from Suriname, South America, 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.
All the birds were culled while in quarantine.
The H5N1 strain has killed more than 60 people in four Asian countries since breaking out in late 2003 in South Korea.
It has also reached 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.
Hugh Pennington, a leading microbiologist, said when the infected parrot was discovered that 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.
I never get in a flap (haha) about these kind of imo hysteria things. I just can't bring myself to worry about it. * I seem to get in a tiswas about much more minor things however 
*
