A VILLAGE sparked its second national public health scare in five years yesterday as the first case of the deadly avian flu virus found in Britain was traced to a private bird importer.

Little Warley, Essex, is home to Pegasus Birds, a tropical bird specialist which is thought to be linked to the quarantine centre where a parrot carrying the lethal H5N1 strain of the disease died on October 16.

The shop is opposite the abattoir that reported the first case of foot-and-mouth disease in the 2001 outbreak.

Brett Hammond, the owner of Pegasus Birds, was convicted of VAT fraud and jailed for 18 months at Knightsbridge Crown Court in February 1997. The sentence was reduced to 12 months on appeal. He also featured in a BBC Radio 4 investigation about the importation of wild cockatoos from Indonesia that were sold in Britain as captive reared birds, which command higher prices.

Last night government vets confirmed they are investigating the possibility that H5N1 was present at the facility much earlier than thought.

On Sunday it announced its “working hypothesis” was that the bird had been infected by a batch of birds from Taiwan.

But yesterday authorities in Taiwan said there had been no reports of cases of H5N1 on the island and the British Government’s theory had no “solid evidence” to back it up.

An alternative possibility is that birds in an earlier batch delivered to the facility could have had a “subclinical” infection and began secreting virus only after the stresses of quarantine. Contaminated droppings could have released the airborne virus that may have infected subsequent batches of birds from Taiwan and South America.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is now looking at what went into the quarantine before the parrot’s arrival.

Although Defra refused to disclose the location of the avian flu case, the commuter belt village came under suspicion. Little Warley, just east of the M25, is home to numerous pet centres, kennels, catteries and aquariums, as well as farms and expensive gated homes.

Mr Hammond could not be contacted at his home in Upminster, near the centre, yesterday. Katrin Geller, his partner, said he was not in the house when The Times called.

She subsequently denied that Mr Hammond lived in the house. When asked if she could confirm that the parrot had died at Pegasus Birds, however, she said: “Defra have told us not to say anything to you about that.”

Staff at the Pegasus Centre, which is the biggest importer of birds and reptiles in Essex, denied that the parrot had died there after a transfer from Heathrow. The bird originated from Surinam, South America, and entered the country in a consignment of 148 birds on September 16.

Eleven days later a batch of 218 birds from Taiwan were also moved into the quarantine premises and two parrots were found dead last Thursday. Only one was found to contain the suspect H5 strain, though further tests on tissue samples from both birds confirmed the H5N1 strain.

Debby Reynolds, the Government’s chief veterinary adviser, confirmed that the birds had been kept in Essex and had shared air space.

The Times was told that there were no quarantine facilities at the Pegasus Centre, and was then repeatedly asked by a man who would not give his name to leave the premises.

Mr Hammond, who was later contacted by telephone, initially denied that he owned the company. “You must have the wrong Brett Hammond, a wrong number,” he said. When it was put to him that he was listed as the director of Pegasus Birds at Companies House, he put the phone down.

Defra declined to confirm or deny that Pegasus Birds was at the centre of the bird flu scare. A spokesman said: “As a matter of course we always discourage people from approaching any disease sites and will therefore not be naming the facility. It is not our practice to release personal information of the owner. Investigations continue into the circumstances surrounding the death of these birds.”

It was a routine inspection at the formerly named Cheale Meats abattoir in Little Warley on February 19, 2001, that triggered the world’s worst foot-and-mouth outbreak.

www.timesonline.co.uk/europe
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