England recently dodged the avian flu bullet by a hair, when a parrot being imported from South America died in quarantine. There is no H5N1 in South America yet, but lab testing of the bird's tissues showed the presence of the H5N1 flu strain. It turned out that at least one duck coming from Asia and held in the same quarantine was infected with the virus. The whole collection of quarantined birds was destroyed. I'm sure the anxiety of this close call had many public health authorities sweating profusely. What might have happened if the parrot had not died and the duck had not been sick enough to attract attention?