Fife swan not native

STATEMENT BY THE UK CVO'S ON THE SWAN DNA RESULT

The bird in which H5N1 avian influenza was confirmed on 6 April in Scotland has been identified as a Whooper swan by DNA 'fingerprinting' at the Central Science Laboratory the UK's Chief Veterinary Officers announced today.

The Cellardyke swan is the first highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza case detected in a wild bird in the British Isles and our current hypothesis1 is that the swan originated outside Great Britain. We know already that movement of swans associated with cold weather and on migration has been a feature of recent developments in Europe .

There are Whooper swan populations which winter across GB. A number of these have been tested over the past few months, all results so far have been negative. At this time of year we would expect Whooper swans to be leaving GB for their summer breeding grounds.

More information will become available in the future from the current incident and studies on epidemiological, surveillance and laboratory tests that are now in progress worldwide.

We continue to urge members of the public to report findings of dead birds to the Defra Helpline. Our extensive wild bird surveillance programme will continue in the Wild Bird Risk Area and across GB. There will be no immediate change to the measures we have put in place.