The UK and Hungary have been feuding over the source of
the British contamination, which led to the destruction of 160,000 turkeys in
Britain.
Tests on H5N1 bird flu viruses found in Britain and Hungary showed they
were genetically almost identical and the most likely transmission route was
from poultry to poultry. Hungarian officials dispute British statements saying
they had found no evidence that poultry there could have transmitted the virus
to Britain.
DEFRA said the
final results showed a very high similarity (99.96%) at the whole genome
level.
"It seems very unlikely that a strain of infection in wild birds could have
produced two viruses so closely related," said scientist John McCauley, of the
virology division of the
Medical Research Council.
Britain stressed that while the outbreaks were linked it had not found any
evidence of illegal or unsafe movements of poultry products from Hungary to
Britain and was still investigating all possible routes of transmission. The EU
commission also said that while the tests showed the outbreaks were directly
linked, that in itself did not explain how the strain came to Britain.
"We are not going to speculate, nor should anybody, as to how it arrived as
this is still part of an ongoing investigation. But we reiterate our view that
the Hungarian authorities have acted properly and took the right measures," said
Philip Tod, spokesman for
EU Health Commission.
by
Editor WorldPoultry
Feb 20, 2007
last update:Mar 5, 2007