A SUSPECTED case of bird flu is being investigated in Scotland, health officials confirmed last night.

Preliminary tests on a dead swan in Fife have revealed that the bird was carrying H5 avian flu, the Scottish Executive said.

If the results of H5 tests are positive, it would be the first time the strain has been found in a wild British bird since the current epidemic began. Further tests today will indicate whether the swan was carrying the deadly H5N1 strain.

In a statement last night, the Executive said that it was taking steps to isolate the outbreak, setting up a protection zone two miles in radius and a surveillance zone of six miles.

Samples from the dead bird have been sent for further analysis to the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey, the European Union reference centre for bird flu.

Charles Milne, the Chief Veterinary Officer for Scotland, said that the discovery was a “huge development” for Britain.

“This is the first time that we have any indication that we might have highly pathogenic avian influenza H5 strain in this country,” he told Newsnight on BBC Two last night.

“And this has clear implications for our veterinary risk assessments and the action that we want to put in place over the next few days and weeks.” He added that farmers within the protection zone would be required to house their birds.

People in the coastal town of Cellardyke said last night that they had seen the dead bird floating in the harbour for several days. One reported that it was being “pecked at by seagulls”.

Scott Forsyth, 36, a gardener whose home overlooks the harbour, saw the swan yesterday. “It was just floating about; it was washed up,” he said. “I heard some folk say it was here for a few days.”

Catherine Richardson, 20, who works at a harbour restaurant, said: “A woman saw the swan getting pecked by sea- gulls, that was a few days ago.”

A single police car was stationed about three miles from Anstruther and Cellar- dyke. The officer was checking vehicles to ensure that they were not carrying poultry.

The surveillance zone is likely to include between 10 and 20 poultry producing farms of various sizes, James Withers, of the Scottish National Farmers’ Union, said last night.

“Fife is not the biggest poultry farming area of Scotland but there are poultry farms everywhere,” he said. “Units would vary in size from between 500 to 40,000 head of fowl.”

A national bird flu readiness test called Exercise Hawthorn that began yesterday was halted last night to enable animal health experts to concentrate on the potential outbreak in Scotland.

Debby Reynolds, the United Kingdom’s Chief Veterinary Officer, said: “I brought to an end the national avian influenza exercise to ensure that we can bring all our resources to bear on this situation.” Movement restrictions were imposed on a poultry farm in Orkney last month after 100 birds were found dead while the farm’s owner was on holiday. But tests found no evidence of avian flu.

There have been more than 40 suspected cases of bird flu investigated in Britain since the start of the year. Until now none has tested positive.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, in whose constituency the bird was found, said that he would follow the situation closely.

There are three kinds of swan found in Britain, one of which, the mute swan, is resident. During the winter months whooper swans visit the North and West in large numbers, arriving in the late autumn and remaining until the spring, when they fly back to Iceland and the Arctic. Bewick’s swans visit from western Siberia, occupying the eastern and southern parts of England until returning about now.

Flu viruses are categorised according to the two key proteins they use to bind to cells and replicate — haemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N).

While there are 16 different kinds of H protein, particular concern surrounds the H5 and H7 types as these are highly pathogenic in birds.

Any H5 infection in British poultry would be a concern, although the greatest risk is attached to H5N1, as this is already known to be virulent and to spread easily.

Scientists have long considered it a matter of time before H5N1 reaches Britain, and even if the swan is found not to have died of the strain it is likely to spread here soon. Cases have been confirmed in France and Germany, where an outbreak on a turkey farm in Saxony was also announced yesterday. H5 flu strains have been reported on rare occasions in Britain, most recently in 1991 when H5N1 was identified in turkeys.

In a separate development, scientists said yesterday that cats were significantly more likely to catch and pass on flu than first thought, and could help the virus to mutate to cause a human pandemic.

The role of the animals in the spread of the H5N1 virus and the risk that they pose to their owners have been underestimated, a team of virologists from the Netherlands say.

Research at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam has shown that cats catch bird flu easily, either by contact with infected birds or by eating them, and that they can transmit the virus to other cats.

This could give the virus new opportunities to adapt to mammals, including people, making the emergence of a strain that spreads easily from person to person more likely, the scientists said in the journal Nature.

WHAT NEXT?

If the bird is found to have died of H5N1:

Mass vaccination is not expected to be part of Britain’s response. The Scottish Chief Veterinary Officer says that it will be considered “right from the start” but does not believe it will be pursued at this stage. Professor Sir David King, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, has said that vaccination could mask signs of the spread of the disease

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