Healthcare Enterprise Group

Avian flu found in parrot in UK

A parrot that died in quarantine in the UK has tested positive for avian flu, the government has said.

A highly pathogenic H5 strain of the disease has been found, but it is not known if it is the H5N1 variant which has killed at least 60 people in Asia.

Because the bird - imported from south America - was in quarantine, the UK's disease-free status is not affected.

So far bird flu - in some cases the H5N1 strain - has been found in Europe in Romania, Turkey and Greece.

It is thought it was carried to those countries by wild birds migrating from Asia.

The parrot is the first confirmed case of avian flu in Britain since 1992.

Disease-free status

UK chief veterinary officer Debby Reynolds said: "The confirmed case does not affect the UK's official disease free status because the disease has been identified in imported birds during quarantine."

The bird was part of a mixed consignment of 148 parrots and "soft bills" that arrived on 16 September. They were also in quarantine with a consignment of 216 birds from Taiwan.