Ahmet Gürhan Kartal
23 December 2016•Update: 23 December 2016
By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal
LONDON
A number of wild birds have tested positive for the avian influenza strain in England and Scotland, the U.K.’s Chief Veterinary Office said in a statement Friday.
The two new cases in Somerset and Leicestershire followed an earlier confirmation Friday that the H5N8 virus was found in a dead wild bird in Scotland today.
The virus was detected in a farm in Lincolnshire a week ago where most of the 5,000 farm birds died of the disease. The rest of the birds were culled in a bid to prevent the spread of the disease.
“Today’s confirmed findings mean that avian flu has now been found in wild birds in widely separated parts of England, Wales and Scotland”, the statement said.
The H5N8 strain was also detected across Europe and preventive measures have been introduced in Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Finland.
“It is important to reiterate Public Health England’s advice that the risk to public health is very low and the Food Standards Agency is clear that bird flu does not pose a food safety risk for U.K. consumers,” Chief Veterinary Officer Nigel Gibbens said.
