coquet

"This was a little unexpected but suggests that it's not as simple as saying, 'dirty lifestyles will stop allergies while clean lifestyles may set them off'. There are probably very specific contexts where this is true, but it is perhaps not a general rule," says Jonathan Coquet, co-author of the study and Associate Professor at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

"The immune systems of wildling mice better represent the human immune system and so we hope that they can bring us closer to the truth of how microbes act upon the body," says Jonathan Coquet.

Bird flu was also confirmed on nearby Coquet Island in June, with black-headed gulls, common terns and rare roseate terns being worst hit.

He is hopeful funding can be secured for environmental monitoring at Coquet, with research carried out into whether the virus remains in the ground.

The consignment from Northumberland's Coquet Island Shellfish Company was rejected by French authorities because a form signed 43 times by a UK official did not include a printed name.