What is bird flu and how dangerous is it?

Bird flu is a disease that affects poultry. It is highly infectious to birds, often fatal, and spreads rapidly among flocks, sometimes carried by wild birds as they migrate.

Only the H5N1 strain is regarded as a risk to humans, as it has managed to jump the species boundary and infect people in South-East Asia. So far it hasn't happened often, and the victims have been mostly vets and poultry workers and their families, who have been infected by contact with birds.

But it is extremely dangerous, or "highly pathogenic and aggressive", as doctors put it - 60 of the 117 people infected with this strain have died of it.

Scientists are afraid that if the H5N1 strain mutates so that it can spread rapidly from human to human, it will cause a global pandemic that will kill tens of millions of people. They have discovered that the strain is already mutating like the Spanish Flu virus that killed 50 million people in 1918-19, which also jumped directly from birds to humans.

Am I likely to catch it?

That depends whether you are exposed to it. The H5N1 strain has not been detected in European poultry yet, but it has been moving steadily closer.

The strain has been found in birds in Turkey, it was confirmed today, and EU public health experts are assuming that an outbreak of bird flu in Romania - inside the borders of Europe - is probably H5N1. No cases of humans being infected have so far been reported in either country.

There may be at a slight risk of catching the disease if you travel in rural areas of countries where bird flu has been reported. These include China, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Russia, Turkey, and Romania.

Should I change my travel plans?

The Foreign Office has issued travel advice for countries with avian flu outbreaks, which warns: "You should avoid visiting live animal markets, poultry farms and other places where you may come into close contact with wild or caged birds; and ensure poultry dishes are thoroughly cooked." The EU is also preparing to issue travel advice.

Outside the body, the virus can readily be killed by washing in hot water, and by disinfectant.

What is being done about it?

The EU is trying to prevent the H5N1 strain from entering Europe by banning imports of bird products - live birds, meat, feathers and so on - from affected areas. Imports from Turkey were banned on Monday, and from Romania today.

In practice, however, it is impossible to prevent wild migratory birds from carrying the disease across borders. The British Government has asked duck shooters and anyone else in the countryside to keep an eye out for sick and dead birds.

Meanwhile the affected countries are trying to stamp the disease out by culling all flocks where the bird flu is found, and giving anti-viral drugs to people working with poultry.

EU scientists are holding emergency meetings today and tomorrow to decide what else needs to be done. Free range flocks may have to be brought indoors to increase bio-security - ie, to prevent infection by migrating birds.

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