Bird flu: Person in south-west England confirmed to have avian influenza in UK first.

The risk to the wider public continues to be very low, but people should not touch sick or dead birds

been confirmed to have contracted avian flu, the UK Health Security Agency announced on Thursday.

The agency said the person had been in close contact with infected birds and there was no evidence of onward transmission.

“The person acquired the infection from very close, regular contact with a large number of infected birds, which they kept in and around their home over a prolonged period of time,” the UKHSA said.

“All contacts of the individual, including those who visited the premises, have been traced and there is no evidence of onward spread of the infection to anyone else. The individual is currently well and self-isolating. The risk to the wider public from avian flu continues to be very low.”

Some strains of bird flu can pass from birds to people, but this is extremely rare, according to the UKHSA.

But the UKHSA has notified the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a precaution.

It said this is the first human case of this strain in the UK, although there have been cases elsewhere globally.

Professor Isabel Oliver, chief scientific officer at the UKHSA, said: “While the risk of avian flu to the general public is very low, we know that some strains do have the potential to spread to humans and that’s why we have robust systems in place to detect these early and take action.

It usually requires close contact with an infected bird, so the risk to humans is generally consider