Environment Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 5 December 2005.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the clade type was of the H5N1 isolate recovered from (a) the parrot/mesia pooled sample and (b) the mesia-only sample in Essex; and whether each clade type was within the same sub-grouping associated with the disease in humans.
The H5N1 isolates from the pooled parrot/mesia sample and from the mesia only samples may be classified as clade 2 by some authorities. While the Department uses advance molecular techniques to determine the linage and, by inference, the origin of avian influenza viruses, the classification by clade is unhelpful when considering the potential these viruses may have for human infection. On a precautionary principle any isolate of highly pathogenic Avian influenza should be considered as having a potential to infect man and appropriate precautions should be taken in every case.
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