"Canada could be next"

    
Bird flu turns up in Scotland; Canada could be next destination

KELVIN CHAN

From Friday's Globe and Mail

LONDON — Authorities scrambled yesterday to set up a protection zone around the Scottish town of Cellardyke after tests confirmed a swan carcass found there is Britain's first wild case of the deadly bird flu.

The infected mute swan, found nine days ago, is the closest the H5N1 virus has come to Canada since originating in Southeast Asia in 2003, and a British ornithological group said the virus could turn up in Canada next as it moves west.

Scotland is one of the closest points in Europe to Greenland, which is the summer migration destination for both white-fronted geese from Britain and some snow geese from Canada, said Grahame Madge, a spokesman for the Royal Society for Protection of Birds.

"Some of the birds spending winter in Europe will go up as far as Greenland, where they will mingle with birds from Canada," Mr. Madge said. The virus, which is easily transmitted between birds, could pass from the British geese to the Canadian ones.

Bird flu has been found in other Western European countries such as France and Germany, whose bird-migration patterns overlap with Britain's, but Mr. Madge said the Scottish discovery heightens the risk of transmission to Canada.

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