Scotland: Britain has confirmed that the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, blamed for the deaths of more than 100 people worldwide over the past three years, has reached its shores.
The British government announced new measures yesterday to prevent the virus spreading to poultry farms and prime minister Tony Blair urged people to remember that the risk of infection to humans was low.
"The lab results lead us now to believe we are dealing with H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza in a swan," Scotland's chief veterinary officer, Charles Milne, told a news conference.
The partially eaten carcass of the mute swan was found late on March 29th in Cellardyke Harbour in eastern Scotland. It was sent to a laboratory in Weybridge, southern England, for analysis two days later.
Amid a media frenzy over the discovery of H5N1 in Britain, officials and experts tried to calm public concerns about the risk to humans.
"This is not a human-to-human virus, it is something that is transmitted to poultry," Mr Blair told a news conference in Northern Ireland. "It's only if humans are in direct contact with poultry that there is any risk involved."
Scottish officials announced new measures to prevent the spread of the disease to domestic poultry farms, as has happened in some other European countries including France and Germany.
A spokesman said vets would test birds at all poultry farms in the 3km (1.8 mile) protection zone it has set up around the place the swan was found.
The authorities also set up a 2,500sq km (965sq mile) "wild bird risk area" in Scotland.
The government said it had ordered poultry farmers within this area to keep their flocks indoors. There are 175 poultry centres in the zone with some 3.1 million birds, of which 260,000 are free range.
Mr Milne said that since March 29th, officials had tested 14 other birds found dead in Scotland,including 12 swans.
In Northern Ireland, a Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said four dead swans were also being tested there for the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
"They are not hot suspects or anything at the moment," she said. "They are routine tests."
Government officials reviewed bird flu contingency plans at a London meeting and concluded that "all relevant steps are being taken".