A swan has been identified as to having contracted the H5 virus with further tests being conducted to test for the more deadly H5N1 virus. The dead bird was found near Cellardyke, Fife in Scotland on a coastal region in an emaciated state. A security cordon has been set up. Sky and BBC 24 broke with the news at around 21:00 BST [20:00 GMT] with CNN reporting the development at 21:30. If this is confirmed to be the H5N1 virus, it with be the first such case on the UK mainland. Test results are not expected until Thursday morning. It comes in the same week as a leaked report which set out the government’s response to a possible flu pandemic. Such a pandemic would be extremely likely if the H5N1 virus jumped the species barrier.
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