France on red alert for deadly bird flu strain

AFP
Feb 24, 2006

PARIS- France was on high alert Friday for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu after confirming the broad H5 type had been found on a turkey farm in the east of the country, Europe's biggest poultry producer.

If more tests confirm the H5N1 sub-type, which can be lethal to humans, it would be the first such outbreak on a farm in the European Union.

Meanwhile, five new suspected cases of bird flu have been identified in wild swans in eastern France, local authorities said Friday.

The swans were also found in the central-eastern Ain department, where France's two confirmed cases of H5N1 bird flu were found, both in wild ducks.

Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau told France 2 television that the "highly pathogenic H5 virus" had been confirmed at an indoor farm containing 11,000 turkeys in the Ain department.

He said only "complete" test results - being carried out at a government laboratory in Brittany and expected later Friday - would tell whether the birds had the H5N1 strain.

"What concerns us is that the farm is within the security perimeter that we set up for the first duck" carrying the H5N1 virus, a wild bird discovered 10 days ago in the village of Joyeux, Bussereau said.

At least 400 turkeys were found dead on Thursday and the rest of the farm's 11,000 birds were slaughtered during the day.

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Bird flu found in central Europe worst strain: German specialists

BERLIN, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet) --

The bird flu found in the center of Europe is the most virulent strain, German specialists said Saturday, fearing that the virus could have entered Europe last year.

On Friday, it was announced that a dead duck found on Feb. 15 on Lake Constance in the Austrian and Swiss Alps had been infectedwith the deadliest strain, known as H5N1/Asia.

Earlier this month, dead wild birds were found in northern Germany with the same illness.

Scientists believe that the virus must have entered Germany last year rather than arrived with migratory birds this month, as the country is still in mid-winter and the dead duck was a type that lives on the shore of Lake Constance all year round.

According to a spokeswoman at the Riems institute, H5N1 exists in several strains. A less pathogenic strain of H5N1 was found in 2004 in wild ducks in France and last year in ducks in northern Italy, she said.

The deadliest strain claimed at least 90 human lives since it was first found in 2003.

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Recombinomics Inc. Predicts a New Genetic Change in the H5N1 (Avian Flu) Virus

Press Release Source: Recombinomics Inc.

Recombinomics Inc. Predicts a New Genetic Change in the H5N1 (Avian Flu) Virus
Friday February 17, 7:30 am ET

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Recombinomics is issuing a new prediction and warning of a likely alteration in the avian influenza H5N1 hemagglutinin gene. Like the warning/prediction issued on October 22nd, 2005, this new alteration will increase the virus' affinity for human receptors and lead to more efficient transmission of H5N1 to humans. The company has notified the WHO of its prediction and warning regarding the near term likelihood of this genetic alteration occurring.


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France orders birds indoors as bird flu gets closer

PARIS, Feb 15, 2006 (AFP)

The French government on Wednesday ordered all poultry and tame birds to be kept indoors, as the deadly strain of bird flu continued its spread through Europe.

All farm ducks and geese are also to be vaccinated in three departments on the Atlantic coast to prevent their contamination from wild birds, Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau announced after an interministerial meeting.

France is Europe's biggest poultry producer, with free-range birds accounting for 17 percent of its production — as well as western Europe's main crossroads for migratory birds, potential carriers of the deadly virus.

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France warned of high risk of bird flue contamination

AFP
Feb 14 2:04 PM US/Eastern

The French food safety agency AFSSA warned of a heightened risk of the deadly bird flu virus reaching the country, and called for poultry to be kept indoors wherever possible.

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Deadly bird flu spreads to Germany, Austria, Iran

By Karin Strohecker
Reuters
Tue Feb 14, 2006 5:33 PM ET15

BERLIN - Three more countries said on Tuesday they had detected cases of deadly bird flu in wild swans, with Germany, Iran and Austria the latest to find the virus that has killed 91 people worldwide.

Austria and Germany became the third and fourth European Union countries to report H5N1 bird flu, just three days after the bloc's first instances were confirmed by Italy and Greece.

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Bulgaria reports first case of H5 avian flu

By Tsvetelia Ilieva

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria has discovered its first case of H5 bird flu in a dead swan on its border with Romania, authorities said on Friday, and samples will be sent to Britain to test whether it is strain that can kill people.

Sandwiched between Romania and Turkey, which have both been hit by outbreaks of the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, Bulgaria has been seen as a possible destination for the virus.

"Our teams found a wild swan in the Danube river near the town of Vidin. The tests on the swan showed it was infected with the H5 virus," Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil told a news conference.

He said he had put his veterinary offices on high alert but said the discovery of one infected swan did not mean there was the danger of wider outbreaks.

"This was a single bird," he said. "There is no sign of any strange behaviour or massive deaths by wild birds."

The swan was found alive but died after showing symptoms of shaking and partial paralysis.

Bulgaria is not able to conduct the complex tests which can tell whether a strain of H5 is the highly pathogenic H5N1, which has killed at least 86 people and millions of birds since 2003.

Human victims contract the virus through close contact with infected birds. However, experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die.

MIGRATORY BIRDS

"If we send the samples on Monday or Tuesday to the EU-registered laboratory in England, we will have the results by the end of the week," Kabil said.

Scientists believe migratory birds first brought the virus to the region from Russia as they travelled south along the Pontic migratory route, which stretches south from northern Russia and Europe and passes along the Black Sea's western coast.

In Turkey, four children died of H5N1 last month and authorities have culled 1.3 million birds in domestic flocks to halt its spread.

Romania, home to Europe's largest wetlands in the Danube delta, has detected cases in birds in 26 villages, while to the north Ukraine officials have destroyed hundreds of thousands of domestic birds after numerous outbreaks there.

Croatia has also detected H5N1 in wild swans.

Bulgaria, a relatively poor Black Sea country of 7.8 million, has banned poultry from its neighbours, forbidden the hunting of wild birds, told farmers to keep domestic fowl indoors and has stepped up surveillance of migratory birds in wetland areas.

Sailor's death in Lithuania could be first human bird flu case in EU

AFP
7 Feb 06

An Indian sailor who died in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda may have been infected with bird flu, the Lithuanian health ministry said.

"A member of the crew of the ship M.V. Ocean Wind, Indian citizen Shaikh Rafikque, died in Klaipeda Monday. The suspected cause of death is bird flu," a statement from the ministry said.

If avian flu is confirmed as the cause of death, it would be the first human case of the disease in the European Union.

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