Lethal bird flu continued its advance across Europe with more
infected birds found in Germany and Italy, while in India seven
people were under observation with symptoms of the disease.
The H5N1 strain of the flu which can be potentially fatal to
humans was detected for the first time on the German mainland in
the northeast state of Mecklenburg-Pomerania, bringing the total
number of cases in the country to 61, animal health experts
said.
In Italy, the Institute of Animal Health in the north eastern
city of Padua announced the virus had been detected in a total of
16 birds in the country.
H5N1 was also confirmed in Tuzla and Navodari on the shores of
the Black Sea in Romania, bringing to 33 the number of sites where
it has been found nationwide, a veterinary official said.
Samples from the latest Romanian cases were sent to the European
Union reference laboratory in Weybridge, Britain, to establish
whether it was the highly pathogenic form of the H5N1 virus.
French authorities vowed to spare no effort in containing avian
influenza after the country became the sixth in the European Union,
and the most westerly, to be hit by the virus.
Europe's top producer and the world's fourth-largest exporter of
poultry, France confirmed late Saturday that H5N1 had been
identified in a wild duck found dead in the central-eastern Ain
department.
Since 2003, over 90 people have died from bird flu in China,
Southeast Asia, Iraq and eastern Turkey after contracting the H5N1
virus from infected poultry. No human infections have been reported
in Europe.
While the virus cannot now be passed between humans, experts
fear that if it acquires this ability it could cause a pandemic
with casualties running into the millions.
French Health Minister Xavier Bertrand stressed that the dead
duck was an isolated case, although food authorities said tests
were continuing on some 15 birds found dead in various parts of the
country.
"There will be no financial or economic obstacle in preparing
France in the face of these risks," he said on Europe 1 radio, as
the country's main farmers' union called for more state help in
tackling the threat.
The plight of EU poultry producers, faced with plummeting sales,
will be discussed by agriculture ministers Monday. Sales are down
by 70 percent in Italy, 40 to 50 percent in Greece and 15 percent
in France.
But in Brussels officials held out little hope in the short
term.
"We're sympathetic but there is very little we, from the
European budget, can actually do," a European Commission spokesman
said.
The other EU member states so far to have detected the H5N1
virus are Austria, Greece, and Slovenia. There have also been cases
in Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine and Russia.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday surveyed measures
being taken to combat bird flu on the Baltic island of Ruegen, as
army disinfection experts deployed to curb the spread of the
virus.
Germany has begun enforcing an order to keep all poultry
indoors, joining the Netherlands, Slovenia, Denmark, France,
Greece, Luxembourg and Sweden in doing so.
Britain, too, said the risk of bird flu there was "more likely"
following the French case.
"It's not inevitable, but it is clear, obviously, that it's more
likely than it was when it was further away," Agriculture Minister
Ben Bradshaw said.
Nearly 35,000 birds will be culled from Monday morning in
Romania, a top official for the Constanta region, Danut Culetu,
told Mediafax news agency.
In India, seven people were under observation while up to half a
million birds were being slaughtered Sunday after the presence of
H5N1 was confirmed.
But fears that the virus caused the death of a farmer in the
western Gujarat state proved unfounded. Authorities had earlier
said he was a chicken farmer, but a health ministry official later
revealed that he had not handled poultry.
In Nigeria, where there have been several major H5N1 outbreaks,
UN health officials inspected an affected farm and assessed
clean-up operations.
A team of World Health Organization (WHO) experts went through
the Bakabo Farm on the outskirts of the northern city of Kano with
local monitors to check the health of farm workers.
Egypt, the second African country after Nigeria to report the
presence of H5N1, said the virus was spreading.
Since it was first detected in three Egyptian governorates
Thursday, H5N1 had been reported in at least six others. Most cases
have been in small domestic coops rather than major industrial
poultry farms, according to an official from the supreme national
committee to combat bird flu.
Bangladesh told its border guards to be extra vigilant to
prevent the smuggling of live birds or poultry products from
neighboring India, a minister said.
(Chinadaily.com via agencies February 20, 2006)
