Fifty-three finches from Taiwan have died at a British quarantine centre because of an outbreak of the most deadly strain of avian flu, the government said. The birds, southeast Asian mesias, also described as finches, died last month of the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 strain, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said Tuesday.
"Only the mesias were infected with H5N1 and 53 out of 101 birds died," it said.
The department also said it was not possible to know if a parrot from Surinam had in fact died from the same virus, as the tissues of the two species were mixed during testing.
"Infection with H5N1 was transmitted between the mesias, but there is no evidence of transmission to other species in the facility," it said.
"The original identification of HPAI H5N1 on October 21 was made from a pool of tissues derived from a Pionus parrot (Surinam) and a mesia (Taiwan)," the department said.
"It has not been possible to say whether the virus isolated came from the parrot tissue or the mesia tissue or both. However, in the light of the other evidence the balance of probabilities is that the source was the mesia sample."
