GERMANY: German state premier visits bird flu affected areas on island of Ruegen as fight against spread of virus continues

Record ID: 872886

  • Title: GERMANY: German state premier visits bird flu affected areas on island of Ruegen as fight against spread of virus continues
  • Date: 24th February 2006
  • Summary: (EU) BONN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 22, 2006) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF UNITED NATIONS BRANCH IN BONN
  • Embargoed: 11th March 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVAAD2P6BIGVNMF95M97KOU7693I
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: The state premier of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Harald Ringstorff, on Wednesday (February 22) visited Ruegen island to get a first-hand impression on the progress in the fight against the spread of the deadly H5N1-virus wich was diagnosed last week, Germany's first outbreak of bird flu.
    After speaking to local authorities and German soldiers who were ordered to Ruegen to assist with the collection of dead birds, Ringstorff told reporters that "of the 144 samples which were analysed between yesterday and today, not a single one tested positive."
    "However," Ringstorff added, "that does not mean an all-clear by any means."
    A day earlier, some 250 soldiers were dispatched to Ruegen to locate and recover the caracasses of dead birds stranded across this Baltic Sea island popular with tourists all year round.
    "So far, we succeeded in keeping the virus away from domestic poultry," Ringstorff said.
    Of the more than 3,000 chickens and other domestic birds killed over the past few days, "more than 1,000 animals have been tested and all tested negative," the state premier said.
    In Bonn, the executive secretary of the United Nations Environment Programme's Convention on Migratory Species, Robert Hepworth, told Reuters Television "it's very strange that these particular infected swans have arrived in this very northerly location at this particular point in the migratory cycle of birds."
    "What we're tending to find is that nothing here is obvious,"Hepworth said.
    "It's very difficult to predict where the next incidence of this disease may be found."
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