Scientists are in the dark about whether bird flu could be transmitted from cats and other pets to people, according to David Nabarro, the senior United Nations co-ordinator for avian influenza, Raphael Minder reports from Brussels.

Dr Nabarro said on a visit to Brussels that there was insufficient research at this stage to establish how big the risk was of people contracting the disease from pets, even if the working assumption was that the risk was small. His comments come after the recent discovery of an infected cat in northern Germany, which has prompted some European authorities to urge pet owners to keep them indoors or tightly controlled.