Flesh-eating killer bug feared

The deadly flesh-eating bug could spread to Britain

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Experts fear a deadly marine bug could arrive on Britain's shores as sea temperatures rise.

Vibrio vulnificus lacks the teeth of Jaws, but eats flesh and can turn a summer trip to the seaside into a nightmare.

Already this year it has made three people ill in Germany and killed another in Denmark.

Out of 10 samples of seawater tested in Germany, nine were positive for the organism.

The bug's normal home is the Gulf of Mexico which laps the US, but scientists believe global warming is causing it to spread northwards.

Each year in the US, V vulnificus infects an estimated 80 people and causes 16 deaths. Many more cases may go unrecorded.

Usually it is caught by exposing a wound to seawater or cutting the skin while handling shellfish.

The bug can cause blood poisoning and necrotising fasciitis - the "flesh-eating" effect of tissue rotting away. Up to half of those infected will die.

Britain's waters are generally too cold for the organism, which prefers to live in temperatures above 20C, but shallow seas in the south can exceed this level during extreme hot spells, and may become warmer in years to come.

Professor Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, who has studied the reports of V vulnificus in Europe, said: "At the moment, there's no evidence that we've got it in British waters, but nobody's looking."