- Title: VARIOUS: European countries prepare to fight the spread of bird flu
- Date: 21st February 2006
- Summary: CLOSE UP CHICKENS AND ROOSTER
- Embargoed: 8th March 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations,Health
- Reuters ID: LVAEW28MCFJ5UX93K138DBNT7ES2
- Story Text: While Bosnia reported its first case of bird flu in two swans on Monday (February 20, 2006) the rest of Europe undertook preventative measures.
Bosnia said further tests at a British laboratory would be needed to determine whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.
Dragan Doko, Minister For Foreign Trade And Economic Relations said that samples were being sent to the European Union's reference laboratory in Weybridge, in Britain. Results were expected by the end of the week.
Officials said bird flu was confirmed in two out of four swans that were culled at Malo Plivsko Jezero lake near the western Bosnian town of Jajce on Friday (February 17).
More than a dozen swans at the lake were culled at the weekend and land within a radius of three kilometres (two miles) was cordoned off. Authorities disinfected the area and drew lists of nearby farms where poultry should be culled, the veterinary office said in a statement.
Chief laboratory inspector Abdulah Gagic said there was no need for people to panic.
"I think that all the measures undertaken by the state and local offices in the field will be sufficient, and that the disease will be localised at the area where it has been discovered and that it will not have negative effects on intensive production of poultry in this country."
But residents living near the lake were worried.
"If they (poultry) have to be culled there's nothing I can do about it. I'm afraid of this disease, who wouldn't be afraid," said Ljubo Jelacic, who lives close to the lake.
Bosnia, situated in the Western Balkans, is on one of the paths for migratory birds from central and northern Europe flying south.
Last week it banned hunting of wild fowl, ordered all poultry to be kept indoors and banned imports of live birds and poultry products from Slovenia, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria after they reported first cases of bird flu.
It had banned imports from 17 countries before, including Croatia which it borders on the north, west and south.
In Brussels European Union agriculture ministers discussed growing demands for a programme of "preventive vaccination" against bird flu.
The total number of dead wild birds on the Baltic island of Ruegen infected with H5N1 rose to 79. On Sunday (February 19) authorities confirmed the disease had spread to the mainland despite efforts to contain it. A spokesman for a crisis centre in Schwerin said two dead birds on the mainland also had the H5N1 disease.
Avian influenza has flared anew in recent weeks, spreading among birds in Europe and parts of Africa and prompting authorities to impose bans on the poultry trade, introduce mass culling and vaccinate poultry flocks.
Consumer concerns are also rising after France, Europe's biggest poultry producer, confirmed its first case of the H5N1 bird flu virus in a dead duck on Saturday (February 18).
The virus has been confirmed in five member states - France, Greece, Italy and Germany and Slovenia - and outbreaks of H5 are still being checked for H5N1 in dead swans found in Austria and Hungary.
Scientists fear that if the virus acquired the ability to easily pass from person to person, it could cause a pandemic that would kill millions.
Meanwhile, German authorities have continued the mass cullings of chickens and other birds in areas affected by thge deadly H5N1 virus on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen.
With the help of an Amsterdam-based company specialising in the culling of animals, authorities killed all birds in the vicinity of where bird flu was discovered so far.
Ruud Larman, director of the Dutch company "Total Culling Concept," told Reuters Television "it's a 60 per cent CO2 mix in which the animals die as quickly as possible."
Wearing a white protective suit, Larman said "we always try to make it as animal friendly as possible but with an outbreak of a disease it's very difficult to adhere to animal rights standards although we try very hard."
The number of dead birds from the wild on Ruegen infected with H5N1 rose to 81 on Monday and worry that the disease would spread to farm birds has hit fever pitch in the media.
Sections of the sparsely populated resort island that lies 200 km (120 miles) north of Berlin have been closed to the public and the entire island was put under close observation.
Local authorities on Ruegen officially declared state of catastrophe for the island. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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