Defra under fire over bird flu mix-up

Tuesday, 15 November 2005 12:00 AM

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) admitted today that 50 finches, and not a parrot as previously thought, died after contracting a deadly strain of the bird flu virus at a quarantine centre earlier this month.

It raises fresh concerns about the ability of the government department to tackle a potential outbreak of bird flu, and the shadow environment secretary described the revelations as "extremely worrying".

Previously, it was thought that a parrot imported from South America being held at the same quarantine centre had died from the disease, but it now transpires this was not the case.

Defra said today that tissue samples taken from the parrot were mixed up with samples taken from the infected finches at a laboratory, leading to the apparently false diagnosis.

But shadow environment secretary Oliver Letwin claimed that media reports also suggested some of the birds may have escaped, and said it showed that the government is failing in its duties to protect the nation against a possible outbreak.

"What we are worried about is that some birds may have been released from the [quarantining facility] which may have been infected," he told BBC News 24.

However, Ben Bradshaw, the minister for environment, food and rural affairs, has strongly denied these suggestions, claiming that the confusion concerning the parrot stemmed from an "innocent mix-up".

He told the same programme: "There is no evidence that any birds have escaped or been released from the quarantine facility."

He added: "I find it extraordinary that an opposition spokesman who purports to be a credible politician can make an allegation based on a [single] erroneous newspaper report."

Mr Bradshaw concluded that the report "demonstrates the success of our current quarantining facilities" and confirmed that all the infected finches had been culled.

The minister also pointed out that, despite being exposed to the infected finches, the parrot did not contract the deadly strain of the virus, suggesting that fears about the infectiousness of bird flu may have been exaggerated.

The government last month announced wide-ranging contingency plans in the event of an outbreak of the virus in the UK, including the stockpiling of 14.6 million courses of anti-viral drugs to fight a potential epidemic.

The UK's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has warned that as many as 50,000 Britons could die if there is a widespread outbreak of the virus in this country.

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