Bird flu found on eastern England poultry farm

LONDON, Feb 3 (Reuters) An outbreak of bird flu has been confirmed on a poultry farm in eastern England, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department said.

Government veterinary experts were called to the farm near Lowestoft, in Suffolk county, late on Thursday and preliminary tests show the birds were killed by the H5 strain of avian flu, the department said in a statement on its Website late yesterday.

Further tests are under way to identify the strain more precisely, and restrictions are in place to stop the movement of birds to or from the site, it said.

The press agency Press Association said about 1,000 turkeys were thought to have died on the farm.

A wild swan found dead in Scotland in March 2006 had the highly pathogenic H5N1 version of the bird flu virus which can kill humans. It was thought to have caught the disease elsewhere, died at sea and been washed ashore in Scotland.

The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 270 people and killed at least 164 worldwide since 2003, most of them in Asia, and over 200 million birds have died from it or have been killed to prevent its spread.

REUTERS SBA RK0805