Britain’s bird flu ‘patient zero’ has tested negative for the first time since catching the deadly strain from his live-in pet ducks.
Alan Gosling, 79, was pictured giving the thumbs up from his home in Devon, where he has been quarantined for nearly three weeks.
The grandfather revealed he received a phone call on Friday informing him that his latest test had come back negative for H5N1. He said he is in ‘perfect’ health and is waiting for confirmation that he can have family over to visit or leave his home.
Mr Gosling said: ‘It will be nice to have somebody to come in and here and talk to. I haven’t got any birds to talk to now, the ducks have gone. They were my family they were, I had a few in here and they were very close.’
All 160 of Mr Gosling’s ducks — including 20 that lived inside his home — were culled after he tested positive on December 22.
The retired train driver said he planned to adopt more ducks in the future and has not been put off by the ordeal.
Mr Gosling is the first ever human case of H5N1 — which is fatal for up to half of the people it infects — recorded in the UK and Europe.
Despite killing millions of poultry worldwide, animal to human transmission of H5N1 is extremely rare. There have been fewer than 1,000 cases globally since the virus emerged in the late 1990s. Human-to-human spread is even rarer.
Alan Gosling, 79, was pictured giving the thumbs up from his home in Devon on Sunday after testing negative for the H5N1 strain
He said he is in ‘perfect’ health and is waiting for confirmation that he can have family over to visit or leave his home
Some of Mr Gosling’s beloved ducks rest on top of his slippers in what appears to be his home
Speaking from his waterside home, Mr Gosling said he ‘roared with laughter’ after being told he was negative.
He added: ‘I thought, “are you joking?”
‘It doesn’t really make a great deal of difference because I don’t go outside at the moment because of the other pandemic.
‘I’m fine, I’ve got no aches and pains or anything. They keep ringing me and asking me how I feel and I say I feel perfect.’
But he has been left ‘heartbroken’ by the deaths of his beloved birds.
‘I’d like to have my ducks back, I miss them like hell,’ Mr Gosling said. ‘They broke my heart, they have been with me for such a long time.
‘All of them were very, very close to me, they knew exactly what I was doing. I used to call them and they’d come, it was like having a dog really.
‘I’m disgusted with the way they killed them.’
He is even believed to have built a bridge from his garden across the River Mardle so that the ducks could cross from a duck house on one side into his own semi-detached cottage
He hopes to get some more ducks once his ordeal is over with, and has apparently received offers of new pets from kind strangers.
Mr Gosling is now looking forward to a visit from son Richard Gosling, 47, and daughter-in-law Ellesha Gosling, 26.
Ellesha said: ‘Dad had a call from an Health and Safety Authority doctor telling him his latest swab has come back clear and he is now bird flu clear.
‘He tested positive over the New Year but the latest test has come back negative.
‘We still need more details about what that means for dad and when he can go out again. It’s been such a horrible time for him.’
Neighbours, who described Mr Gosling as ‘eccentric’, last week told MailOnline they were not surprised he had caught the disease, given his close proximity to the animals.
‘A friend of mine went into his house a while back to get a clock fixed,’ said one local, ‘and he described the place as being overrun with ducks – and their droppings everywhere.
‘I guess it was only a matter of time before he caught something from them.’
Another neighbour said that Mr Gosling had tended the ducks for all the 10 years or so they had lived close by.
‘He’s devoted to the animals and I think it went from him feeding them in his garden by the river, to allowing them to cross the bridge to his property and then allowing them into his house.
Mr Gosling is believed to have started co-living with ducks after his divorce from ex wife June Axford, who also lives in Buckfastleigh,
She told MailOnline: ‘He never kept any ducks or birds when we were together.’ She said the couple divorced more than 20 years ago, but she added that despite being in the same small town, they never saw each other.
H5N1 has for years been highlighted as a potential pandemic threat due to how contagious it is in animals.
It is feared that as the virus spreads, it may acquire mutations which make it easier to infect humans.
The current H5N1 outbreak is the largest bird flu crisis ever recorded in Britain, with 2million poultry culled as part of efforts to control the virus.
Britain’s outbreak is part of the spiralling crisis currently ravaging Europe and has been going on for weeks, which sparked fears of a turkey shortage in the run-up to Christmas.
Bird to human transmission of bird flu — also known as avian flu — is rare and has only occurred a small number of times in the UK. However, the public is being urged not to touch sick or dead birds.
Subsequent human-to-human transmission of avian influenza is even rarer, meaning the risk of a major outbreak in people is deemed to be even lower.
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