The owner of the Bank of Bermuda, HSBC Holdings Plc, has drawn up plans to cope without up to half its staff if there is a pandemic triggered by bird flu, Reuters reported yesterday.

London-based HSBC said the potential absence of up to 50 percent of its staff did not relate to how many workers it expected to contract flu, but was a hypothetical number used for ?worst case scenario? planning.

It included staff staying at home with flu, some with secondary infections and others absent to care for family or to avoid infection.

Yesterday a Bank of Bermuda spokesperson said: ?Bank of Bermuda is actively preparing an appropriate plan to combat an avian flu pandemic should the need arise. When that plan is finalised we will advise our colleagues.?

The Financial Times quoted HSBC?s head of group crisis management, Bob Piggott, as saying several other banks were ?moving towards? similar estimates for staff absences during any pandemic lasting up to three months.

?(Bird flu) is probably the single biggest challenge for the whole group,? Piggott said in the paper. ?None of us knows the virulence of the virus, but I would rather be prepared for the worst.?

HSBC?s statement added: ?Fortunately, our scale means that we have the necessary resources to maintain a reasonable level of service even in the face of very serious threats. To that end, we have been planning how to change working practices to respond to a possible pandemic.?

The H5N1 strain of flu has killed at least 74 people in China and southeast Asia since 2003, but an outbreak in Turkey has marked a shift westwards to the edge of Europe.

Turkey said on Monday that 14 people had been confirmed with bird flu infections and that three of them, all children, had died.

Last month, European Union health experts estimated a bird flu pandemic could result in 25 percent of Europe?s workforce being on sick leave.

?While we have no reason to disbelieve the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on bird flu, it is entirely proper that we prepare for any contingency,? HSBC?s statement said.

Mr. Piggott said HSBC, which employs more than 250,000 in 77 countries, had devised plans to increase working from home and other ways to get over the impact of a pandemic.