Paignton Zoo reopens after bird flu closure

Monitoring will continue for some birds that remain in "bio-secure quarantine areas"

Paignton Zoo has reopened - two weeks after it was shut following two cases of bird flu.

Monitoring would continue for some birds that remain in "bio-secure quarantine areas", a spokesperson for the zoo said.

"People's emotions, resilience and professionalism have been stretched to their limits" since bird flu was confirmed at the site, they added.

Paignton Zoo first shut after a dead pelican was found on 28 August.

The zoo has been working with the Animal and Plant Health Agency and Defra and after implementing measures it said it had been told it could reopen.

No 'free-roaming peafowl'

The H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus is highly contagious among birds and is spread by close contact with an infected bird, whether it is dead or alive.

The website for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the virus was "primarily a disease of birds and the risk to the general public's health is very low".

A zoo spokesperson said there were a number of "approved bio-security quarantine areas on site" and the birds within them would "undergo a programme of surveillance monitoring and testing to ensure they remain healthy".

The spokesperson added: "Visitors will notice that we have had to remove our captive birds from the main lake and we no longer have free-roaming peafowl around the zoo.

"These birds - which are now in bio-secure quarantine - were in contact with wild birds and it will have been a sick wild bird that brought the avian influenza virus onto the site."

The zoo said it was because of the "phenomenal efforts of people from all departments that we are now in this position [to reopen]" and they thanked the public for "the very many messages and gestures of support" they had received.