LONDON, Nov 12: British vets ordered the slaughter of some 5,000 birds on Monday after a new outbreak of avian flu on a farm in eastern England, the first in six months, officials said.The outbreak, the H5 strain of the virus and not necessarily the lethal H5N1 Asian type, was found on a farm near the town of Diss, said a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

A three-kilometre radius protection zone and a 10-kilometre surveillance zone were imposed around the farm in the county of Suffolk, where there was an outbreak of H5N1 in January.

“It is H5 but we don’t know which strain,” the spokesman said.

“Full confirmation of results, including whether or not this is H5N1 and whether the strain is high or low pathogenic, will follow,” added a Defra statement.—AFP