Bird flu kills three swans at nature reserve

Three swans killed by bird flu have been found at a nature reserve owned by one of Britain's richest women.

They died of the H5N1 virus at Abbotsbury Swannery - owned by Charlotte Townshend, who is said to be worth £390million.

Twelve staff are being monitored for symptoms of bird flu, which can be passed to humans, and have been given Tamiflu anti-viral tablets as a precaution.

Members of the public were warned not to touch dead wild birds near the 12th century swannery in Dorset, which has 800 mute swans and is the world's oldest.

Acting chief veterinary officer Fred Landeg said: "Our message to

all bird keepers is they must be vigilant, report signs of disease immediately and practise the highest levels of biosecurity."

Last year 160,000 turkeys were slaughtered after the disease was discovered at a Bernard Matthews turkey farm in Norfolk.

Because mute swans are territorial and do not stray far from the swannery, it is likely that the disease was spread by contact from migrating ducks or geese.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs set an exclusion zone 20 miles around the swannery comprising a wild bird control area and a wild bird monitoring area.

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The control area extends 15 miles to the south-east of Abbotsbury and includes Weymouth, Chesil Beach and Portland Bill.

The monitoring area extends 20 miles around the site, including Dorchester.

Any gatherings of birds in the area, such as poultry auctions and pigeon races, are banned, and poultry owners must keep their birds inside. Hunting wild birds is also banned.

The swannery, an internationally important wetland, has been in the ownership of the family of Mrs Townshend, Britain's 17th richest woman, for 15 generations.

Last night general manager John Houston said the birds were discovered nearby at Chesil Beach.

He said: 2The three dead birds were found on Monday by a member of staff. We called Defra and they took the birds away.

"Since avian flu became an issue, we have been following Defra procedures whenever a dead bird is found on our land. We bag it up and call in Defra who analyse it.

"Defra aren't going to cull the rest of the birds here because it would be counter-productive.

"Trying to round them up will probably spread them all over the countryside."

Defra vets plan to carry out tests on some of the 800 swans to check for signs of avian flu.

Celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall keeps chickens and other birds in West Dorset.

He said: "Everyone who keeps poultry in the area will be very concerned about the risk of finding it in their own flocks."

The positive test yesterday came less than a month after restrictions on the movement of poultry were lifted in Norfolk and Suffolk. A restriction zone in both counties

was imposed after an outbreak at a turkey farm in November.

Ian Johnson, of the National Farmers' Union, said: "After the last 12 months of plague and pestilence, this is the last thing on God's green earth we would have wished for."

Avian flu was thought to infect only birds until the first human cases were seen in Hong Kong in 1997.

According to figures from the World Health Organisation, there have been 206 deaths from H5N1 across the world.

There is no cure, but Tamiflu lessens symptoms.

If the bird flu virus transmutes into a form that can be readily passed between humans, experts fear an epidemic that could kill up to 50million people.

A Chinese man diagnosed with bird flu is thought to have caught it from his 24-year-old son, who died last month, it emerged yesterday.

The man, from the eastern province of Jiangsu, has recovered.

Health ministry spokesman Mao Qun'an said: "It was an infection from close contact."