Poultry farmers and those working with poultry on the Isle of Man potentially at risk of exposure to avian flu, have been offered a flu vaccine.

The island’s public health body, Manx Care, said the regular flu vaccine is being offered to poultry farmers to avoid them having human flu and bird flu concurrently.

“This will lower the risk of you having bird flu and human flu at the same time, which could then cause a new type of flu that spreads between people,” Manx Care added.

Although the Isle of Man has had no recorded cases of bird flu, it has the same risk classification as the UK. There have been cases of bird flu in humans.

However, the European Food Safety Authority said there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission.