Health security experts have reassured the public that the risk of avian flu in humans is very low following a case in Devon last week.

Alan Gosling, 79, from Buckfastleigh is the first person to get the H5N1 strain of bird flu in the UK.

Mr Gosling is believed to have caught the disease from ducks he had adopted.

In a press release shared by the UK Health and Security Agency in which the case was confirmed but did not name Mr Gosling it said: ’Bird-to-human transmission of avian flu is very rare and has previously only occurred a small number of times in the UK.

’The person acquired the infection from very close, regular contact with a large number of infected birds, which they kept in and around their home over a prolonged period of time.

’The risk to the wider public from avian flu continues to be very low. However, people should not touch sick or dead birds.

’The case was detected after APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency) identified an outbreak of outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian flu in their flock of birds.

’Their infection was identified through the routine monitoring which is conducted on anyone who has close contact with infected birds.

’The infected birds have all been culled.’

The national outbreak of avian flu has led to other parks closing their duck ponds and enclosures in a bid to save their animals from the same fate as Mr Gosling’s.

St James’s Park, a royal park in central London, has taken precautionary steps.

A notice on their website says the park’s famous pelicans will be moved to an alternative enclosure.

Retired train driver Mr Gosling said he was ’feeling well but lonely’

He said:’As far as health is concerned, I’m fine, but I can’t stop thinking about the ducks.

’I’m as fit and healthy now as I was donkeys years ago, because looking after the ducks kept me busy and active every day.

’By now, I would be back out with them, except I don’t have any because they killed them all.

’I can’t believe it - some of them I had for 12, 13 years since they were tiny chicks and I hand-reared them.

’They all had different stories - and then I had to watch them being killed and I couldn’t do anything to help them.

’At the moment, I don’t know what to do with my days.

’I keep turning it over in my head and when I go to sleep it’s what I dream about - it never leaves my mind.

’Maybe one day I’d like some more ducks, or other birds, but it’ll never replace what I lost.’