A WEEK after the UK found its first case of H5N1 flu, in a swan in Scotland, the news seems good: no H5N1 has been found in any of the nearly 4000 wild birds tested since late last year. The trouble is, it is too good. Almost no avian flu of any form has been found, and normally 10 per cent of ducks have some sort of flu. Shouldn’t this have rung alarm bells?
Accurate testing depends not only on high-tech equipment but on getting the fiddly details of procedures right. Sadly the instructions given by government scientists for storing…
