Avian flu spreads

Medical Laboratory Observer, March, 2007

Avian flu spreads. Britain's last occurrence of bird flu was in April 2006 when a dead swan washed up on shore in Scotland; however, in early February 2007, authorities confirmed England's largest outbreak of H5N1 in 2,500 turkeys in the northeast at Lowestoft. Investigators are puzzled as to how the virus was introduced into a sealed shed on the farm of Europe's largest turkey producer.

In addition to destroying the infected turkeys, another 159,000 birds on the farm have been culled to contain the outbreak. Since January, there have been outbreaks in poultry in Japan, Russia, and Hungary. Human infections have been seen in China, Indonesia, and Egypt; the most recent death in Egypt on Feb. 16, brought the total for 2007 to nine.