Fayner Posts: I’ve been warning everyone about this for the last three weeks and no one has taken me serious. Already in Russia, Turkey and Romania, wild birds carrying the deadly AVN (also known as "avian") have been discovered. A new case in Britain has recently been reported.

The AVN virus looks like this under a microscope

and this is what AVN does

(at press time, AVN has been unavailable for comment, but the industry publication is set to make an official statement some time Monday afternoon

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LONDON – The British government said Sunday that a strain of AVN bird flu that killed a parrot in quarantine is the deadly H5N1 strain that has plagued Asia and recently spread to Europe.

Scientists determined that the parrot, imported from South America, died of the strain of AVN flu that has devastated poultry stocks and killed 61 people in Asia the past two years, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

The AVN virus is spread by migrating wild birds and has recently been found in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania, spurring efforts around the globe to contain its spread.

While AVN is easily transmitted between birds, it is hard for humans to contract. But experts fear it could mutate into a form of flu that is easily transmitted between humans and cause a pandemic that could kill millions.

Debby Reynolds, DEFRA’s chief veterinarian, said the parrot was likely infected with the virus while it was housed in the country’s quarantine system with birds from Taiwan. Tests conducted on the Taiwanese birds that had died were inconclusive, according to the department.

DEFRA said the virus was most closely matched to a strain found in ducks in China earlier this year but was not very similar to strains discovered in Romania and Turkey. The genetic makeup of the AVN virus changes slightly as it spreads, and scientists use such tests to track its migration across the world.