Special Report: Global fight against bird flu
    Related: UK confirms H5N1 in dead swan

    BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhuanet)-- The bird flu virus is very unlikely to mutate into a form that could be transferred between humans, the British government's chief scientific adviser said on Sunday.

Some swans are seen in a park in Scotland, April 6, 2006. A swan found dead in Scotland has tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

    Sir David King said any suggestion that such a mutation was inevitable, thereby triggering a global pandemic, is "totally misleading."

    "The government is preparing for that possibility but I would say it's a very low possibility," he said.

    The view was delivered as the leaks of documents detailed government plans to deal with a widespread outbreak of a human form of the virus.

    In a separate leak, it was reported that government ministers were drawing up plans for the widespread closure of schools "to halve a potential 100,000 deaths among children" in the event of a pandemic.

    The risk of a human pandemic of the bird flu virus has been a hot topic in U.K. following the discovery of a dead swan infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus in Cellardyke, Fife.

    "The one swan doesn't mean it has arrived here. We need to see more evidence of spread before we can say it has arrived in the U.K.," he said. So far all of the other birds tested for the virus have been found to be negative.

    The British government has received thousands of phone calls reporting dead birds. However, very few have been found to warrant further investigation. Veterinary experts are concentrating on testing birds found in the area around Cellardyke, the coastal village where the swan was found.

    The government had detailed contingency plans to cope with a pandemic, Downing Street said Saturday. "It would be irresponsible for the government not to think through every conceivable scenario, But it would be equally irresponsible to get the present situation out of perspective," an official said. Enditem

    (Agencies)