Deadly bird flu on Britain’s doorstep as cases discovered in CALAIS
A POTENTIALLY deadly bird flu is just a birdflight away from arriving in Britain after the bug was detected in Calais.
By ROMINA MCGUINNESS IN PARIS
Express.co.uk
Tue, Nov 29, 2016
The French agriculture minister Stephane Le Foll said that a severe strain of H5N8 bird flu had been detected among a group of 20 wild ducks in northern France.
The sick duck had the same strain of bird flu that has hit several European countries, and which has led to the culling of thousands of poultry.
The discovery is France’s first case of H5N8 – but bizarrely it has been found just 30 miles away from Britain, an easy distance for a duck to fly.
The agriculture minister added that the wild ducks had been used as “callers for waterfowl hunting”, and had not been destined for human consumption.
Mr Le Foll said that local authorities had increased surveillance in the area, before adding that the infected wild ducks had been culled, along with another group of ducks that the animals had been in contact with located in the affected area.
The agriculture minister added that the outbreak had “not affected domestic farms,” and that France should regain its international status of free of highly pathogenic avian flu by Saturday December 3, provided no new case was found in the coming day.
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