'Multiple' bird flu pandemic alert, by IAN JOHNSTON

SCIENTISTS have warned of multiple bird-flu pandemics, amid concerns that if the virus mutates to pass between humans and potentially spark a pandemic once, it is likely to do so repeatedly.

Researchers in the United States compared the way such pandemics could start to "a fire throwing out sparks".

That means containing an emerging bird flu pandemic at its source would probably only delay, not stop, the spread of the illness, the team from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Washington said.

"If a single introduction of a pandemic-capable strain is likely to happen, then multiple introductions are also likely," said Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology.