BRITAIN is to let 25 million free-range chickens stay outdoors because the Government believes that a duck that died of bird flu in France was not heading for the Channel.

The dead bird was reported to be a common pochard, a winter migrant to Ireland and western Britain from Russia and Eastern Europe. The first-known victim in France of H5N1, the strain of avian flu that kills human beings, the duck probably caught the illness in one of the countries already reported to be affected. Bird flu has spread in two years from East Asia to reach Russia, Eastern and Central Europe.

Ben Bradshaw, the Animal Welfare Minister, disclosed yesterday that British poultry would be moved inside if the disease arrived here or on a migratory path to these shores.

France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Greece and Slovenia have already moved flocks indoors.

Experts asked why Britain was taking less drastic measures. John Oxford, a virologist, told the BBC: “Some countries in Europe are better organised, I think, particularly Holland and France.” Professor Oxford said that British officials would be very well-organised in dealing with an outbreak. “But the gaping chasm seems to me that they are not prepared to act to stop one coming.”

At a meeting of EU farm ministers in Brussels today, France and the Netherlands will press for permission to vaccinate free-range farm birds.

Xavier Bertrand, the French Health Minister, said yesterday that he had ordered 600 million face masks. British ministers are instead recommending basic hygiene such as washing hands thoroughly and using paper handkerchiefs when sneezing.The Department of Health said yesterday that should anyone in this country contract bird flu, healthcare staff treating them would be issued with surgical masks.

So far 169 people worldwide have caught the new strain of avian flu; 91 have died. Most are reported to have been in close contact with farmed poultry.

Vietnam, where 42 people have died, appears to have become the first country to bring avian flu under control. The government enforced strict control measures last year and said that it had had no cases in humans in the past three months.

If the disease mutates so that people can catch it from each other, it is expected to spread quickly because nobody will have immunity. The World Health Organisation suggests that one in four Britons would be infected in a pandemic.

The Department of Health said that it had ordered 14.6 million courses of antiviral treatments for the afflicted.

Drugs manufacturers have been asked to tender to provide 120 million doses of vaccine against the human-to-human strain, if it develops. A vaccine cannot be produced until the flu has mutated. An emergency two to three million doses of vaccine against the current H5N1 strain will be offered to researchers and health workers while the new preventive jabs are being developed.

The duck that died in France did so in Joyeux, close to the Swiss border. The French Farm Ministry said that it was likely that many other infected wild birds would soon be found.

• Nine dead swans found across Britain during the weekend are being tested for bird flu, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed last night.

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