A cull of chickens at the centre of a British bird flu outbreak was continuing today as officials reassured the public of the "extremely low" risk to human health.
It comes after a poultry worker at the Norfolk farm affected by the H7 strain of avian flu contracted the virus in the form of conjunctivitis.
A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said today: "The cull of chickens is continuing and we are urging people not to panic. As the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said yesterday the risk to human health is extremely low."
Yesterday, it emerged that Defra was investigating three reports of possible new cases in the region following the outbreak at Witford Lodge Farm in Hockering.
The spokesman said today that the results would only be made public if they were positive.
An HPA spokeswoman said that no other poultry workers at the farm had shown symptoms of illness caused by H7 avian flu.
"We are following up all the workers and there is no suggestion that anybody else has got any illness due to H7," she said today. "The poultry workers have been given anti-viral drugs and we have asked them to monitor their own health and report any symptoms they get."
Letters were being delivered to some 1,800 homes near the farm today. Both the Health Protection Agency and Norfolk County Council stressed the countryside was "open", despite the outbreak in which the worker is thought to have become infected via close contact with poultry.
"We want to reassure residents that all agencies are working together to minimise the impact of the outbreak of the form of avian flu on the local community," said a spokesman for Norfolk County Council.
"A joint letter from the two chief executives of the councils is being delivered to about 1,800 homes tonight and over the weekend in North and East Tuddenham, Hockering and Mattishall to reassure local people."
All 35,000 chickens at the farm are being slaughtered after the virus was detected earlier this week. The HPA said the worker reported his illness on Thursday, adding that symptoms were limited to an eye infection, without respiratory problems.
The infected man, who has not been identified, has the low pathogenic H7N3 strain of avian flu which does not transmit easily from person to person, the HPA said.
Dr Maria Zambon, director of the HPA's Influenza Laboratory, said: "He is in good health. He has a mild illness."
Experts said tests have shown the virus detected at Hockering is the milder H7 strain of avian flu — not the deadly H5N1 strain that has claimed the lives of hundreds of people in Asia.
The risk posed to the public from the outbreak at Witford Lodge Farm is "extremely limited", the HPA added, and the worker did not need hospital treatment.