LONDON—Britain's farm ministry said on Tuesday that a bird flu outbreak on a turkey farm in eastern England was the deadly H5N1 strain.
Acting UK Chief Veterinary Officer Fred Landeg confirmed the highly virulent strain at a briefing in London, adding that a 3-km protection zone and a 10-km surveillance zone were in place.
Officials began slaughtering thousands of turkeys at the farm on Tuesday.
"A full epidemiological investigation is underway and all potential sources will be investigated," Landeg said, adding that it was too early to speculate on what the source of the outbreak might be.
Landeg urged vigilance from poultry keepers, asking them to stay on the lookout for the disease and to report symptoms quickly.
The H5N1 strain has killed more than 200 people worldwide since 2003 and millions of birds have either died from it or been killed to prevent its spread.
Bird Flu Developments
It is Britain's second outbreak of H5N1 in 2007.
There have been 206 human deaths globally from the H5N1 strain and 335 confirmed cases of infection since 2003, according to World Health Organisation data.
Here is a chronology of major recent bird flu developments:
- Feb. 8, 2006—First African cases of the deadly H5N1 strain are detected in poultry in northern Nigeria.
- Feb. 18—India announces its first cases of H5N1, finding the virus in poultry in a western state.
- Feb. 25—France confirms H5N1 at a farm where thousands of turkeys died, the first case of the virus in domestic farm birds in the European Union.
- Sept. 28—China shares long-sought-after samples of H5N1 in what many scientists view as a breakthrough in cooperation.
- Feb. 3, 2007—WHO confirms bird flu killed a 22-year-old Nigerian woman, its first known human fatality in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Feb. 3, 2007—H5N1 is found to have killed 2,500 turkeys on a farm in southeast England, the first outbreak in British poultry.
- Feb. 27—Laos confirms its first human case of bird flu. The patient dies on March 7.
- April 17—The first bird flu vaccine for people wins U.S. approval.
- May 22—WHO agrees to demands from developing countries to revamp its system for sharing flu virus samples. It also says it will work to ensure fair distribution of affordable vaccines.
- June 16—Vietnam says bird flu killed a 20-year-old man, the first death in the country from H5N1 since late 2005.
- July 26—India confirms latest outbreak of bird flu in poultry in Manipur state in the remote northeast, is the H5N1 strain. It is the first case reported in India in a year.
- Oct. 4—A study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison says that H5N1 has mutated to infect people more easily, although it still has not transformed into a pandemic strain.
- Nov. 12—WHO confirms that an Indonesian man from Riau province on Sumatra island has died of bird flu, taking the country's death toll from the disease to 91. Indonesia, which has had the most number of human deaths from the H5N1 virus globally, has had 133 confirmed human cases of the disease.
- Nov. 13—Britain confirms the bird flu outbreak on a turkey farm on the border of Norfolk and Suffolk in east England is the virulent H5N1 strain.
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