The highly contagious virus can be carried by the wind, on the soles of shoes or on the wheels of cars, and the British countryside has become a virtual no-go area.

CNN: Outbreak sparks UK meat shortage fears

Veterinary experts are now increasingly worried that the disease could cross the North Channel, carried either by the wind or by people.

BBC: Clubs open despite disease appeal

The most persuasive evidence that Voyager 1 has crossed the termination shock is its measurement of a sudden increase in the strength of the magnetic field carried by the solar wind, combined with an inferred decrease in its speed.

BBC: Voyager impression (Nasa)

But officials feared from the start that the number of imported animals - and the fact that the virus could be carried on the wind or by birds - meant that an outbreak would be difficult to avoid.

BBC: News Online

Scientists say the infection in native trees has been caused by a fungus Chalara fraxinea, which is believed to have been carried on the wind from mainland Europe.

BBC: Essex

The Swedish government is funding research into the feasibility of using a wind-turbine driven oxygen pump in the Baltic, following studies carried out last year by the University of Gothenburg, which looked at the effect of pumping oxygen-rich surface water to the bottom of two Swedish fjords.

CNN: Can oxygen pump breathe life into ocean 'dead zone?'

Arriving on May 19 at Land's End in the far southwest of England, it will then wind its way through 1, 019 communities, carried by 8, 000 torch-bearers.

CNN: 2012 Olympic flame lit in ancient stadium

Walking to the main chapel, Hopkins heard a sneering wind outside and he thought of it as sea-roaring Deutschland weather, carried there as if by the Royal Mail.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Exiles'