Bird flu is said to have arrived on Britain's doorstep on Friday, as France said it had found its first case of the deadly H5 strain.

French officials said the case of a dead wild duck found near Lyon "very probably" involved the H5N1 strain, which has shown itself capable of jumping the "species gap" to humans, according to The Daily Telegraph on Saturday.

The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has killed at least 90 people since 2003, most of whom in southeast Asia. In every case reported so far, human infection is considered to have close contact with infected birds.

Samples from the duck were rushed to the European Union "Reference Laboratory" for bird flu, near Weybridge, to determine the exact strain.

French officials are also carrying out tests on two other dead ducks that were found in a wildlife reserve at the mouth of the Somme river near the north coast.

France is Europe's biggest poultry producer as well as western Europe's main crossroads for migratory birds.

Following newly approved EU safety regulations, a two-mile radius "protection zone" was set up around the spot near the town of Joyeux where the duck was found.

Inside that zone poultry must be kept indoors and its movement is banned except directly for slaughter.

France and Holland are leading calls for mass vaccinations of poultry flocks. The vaccination should help slow the spread of the virus, but could lead to the rest of the world banning the import of poultry products from the EU, officials in Brussels said.

Earlier this week, the French government ordered all poultry and tame birds to be kept indoors. Similar controls were imposed by Holland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Denmark and Greece.

Source: Xinhua