RESIDENTS packed out a village hall on Friday night for updates on the county's bird flu outbreak.

More than 60 people attended the public meeting in Abbotsbury to be briefed by experts on the disease.

Police, government and council representatives took questions from concerned bird keepers to allay fears about avian influenza spreading to poultry.

Despite an announcement that a fifth dead swan had just tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, there was some positive news.

Game hunters were told that shooting restrictions over the 10km bird monitoring zone were now lifted.

Alan Wellwood, representing the animal health branch of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said: "We are only about a week into the whole thing.

"If nothing else happens, an assessment will be made by a risk assessment group in London and if they decide the risks are not high, the whole thing will be lifted by February."

Mr Wellwood also said a team of emergency workers has canvassed 45,500 addresses in the area to identify poultry keepers.

He said: "We've done a door-to-door search and we've been going out and identifying anyone with less than 50 birds.

"This is around 200 premises where we have to examine the poultry and take samples."

Researchers at Abbotsbury Swannery - the site of the outbreak - are still taking random samples from swans and examining droppings, he added.

One resident was concerned all the Fleet's footpaths have stayed open since bird flu was found on January 10. He said: "If the shooting of pheasants is banned because it frightens birds then why not close the footpaths, because people walking dogs frightens the birds away."

Richard Herringshaw, of Dorset County Council, said footpaths would remain open because the authority was bound by Defra's bird flu legislation.

"Because they are wild birds they can fly anywhere. There's no point in closing footpaths," he said.

Dr Mark Salter, from the Health Protection Agency, said there were no concerns about 12 people who had been in close contact with birds at the swannery.

And he added that a vaccine against the disease could only be used on endangered species.

"It could be used in zoos or around here, places like the Weymouth Sea Life Centre on its penguins," he said.

Mr Wellwood told residents a cold snap just before the middle of November could be behind the outbreak: "More birds could have come in to cause the problem - but all this is supposition.

"At the moment we are monitoring what we have, but every time we find an infected swan, we have to start again with the 21-day all-clear."

Those at the meeting were given booklets about the disease and told to check Defra's website for the latest updates.