Battle of blame continues in Britain over bird flu

As investigations into the cause of the outbreak of bird flu in Britain continue, British scientists say they have found that the strains of H5N1 bird flu in England and Hungary are "essentially identical".

They maintain that the virus which killed turkeys at the Bernard Matthews plant in Holton, Suffolk, was 99.96% similar to the one that infected geese in Hungary.

The government's Deputy chief veterinarian Fred Landeg says the most likely transmission route for the outbreak was from poultry to poultry and investigations were continuing but at this stage there is no evidence that the "illegal" movements of poultry products has occurred.

The Bernard Matthews plant has just recently been given permission to resume operations following the bird flu outbreak which resulted in the death and culling of thousands of turkeys after the H5N1 strain was found there on the 3rd February.

The high level of genetic match between the UK and Hungarian viruses was revealed following an analysis of the two strains carried out by the Veterinary Laboratory Agency (VLA).

According to VLA's chief avian virologist Ian Brown, other European viruses have also shown close relationships to these viruses, but the levels of identity are much closer than with other Asian lineage H5 viruses and other European virus strains.

Meanwhile in Hungary experts are adamant there is no evidence that exported meat was responsible for the Suffolk outbreak.

Hungary's chief veterinarian Miklos Suth says no live birds or eggs had been exported from his country and has denied reports suggesting infected geese in Hungary were culled at the same abattoir in Kecwskemet that processed the turkeys exported to England.

Suth says the slaughterhouse where the geese were killed dealt only with geese, while the abattoir where the turkeys died handled only turkeys.

EU spokesman Philip Tod said investigation was continuing into other possible ways that bird flu could have spread from Hungary to England.

The Hungarian Poultry Council has severely criticised the British media for attempting to place the source of the Suffolk outbreak down to Hungary.

The European Union has approved the Hungarian inquiry into the outbreak and possible links to the British case and are reportedly satisfied with the Hungarian investigations; but questions have been raised as to the level of co-operation provided to the authorities by Bernard Matthews.

Last week events led the British government's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, to declare "the most likely scenario" was that the infection came from Hungary.

Hungarian authorities are also angry that shipments of raw meat continued to be exported from the Bernard Matthews plant to Hungary after the site was identified as infected, raising the risk that H5N1 was transported back to Central Europe.

Bernard Matthews insists it has always worked closely with the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and given it prompt access to all information requested.