The United Kingdom's health security agency has detected avian influenza virus in two poultry workers in England following testing for people who have been in contact with infected birds.

"The two people returning positive tests are known to have recently worked on an infected poultry farm in England. Neither has experienced any symptoms of avian influenza and both have since tested negative," a statement from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

The health agency said this did not change the level of risk to human health and they had not detected evidence of "human-to-human transmission".

The two are the first humans to test positive for the virus in the UK since the agency announced a case of a 79-year-old English man who was infected after allowing ducks into his home in January 2022.

The agency said bird-to-human transmission of avian flu had occurred in the UK only a small number of times prior to that.

with AP