Highly pathogenic strain of bird flu detected in Hungary, says EU

Time is GMT + 8 hours

Posted: 9-Jun-2006 22:56 hrs

Hungarian authorities have detected a highly pathogenic strain of bird flu in a flock of domestic geese although tests are yet to show whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain.
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The European Union's executive arm said Friday officials have slaughtered all 2,300 geese in the flock and are also culling poultry and ducks within a one kilometer (mile) radius of the site in Bacs-Kiskun, southern Hungary.
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Samples had been sent to the European Union's reference laboratory in Weybridge, outside London, to determine whether the outbreak is the H5N1 avian influenza virus.
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If confirmed, it would mark the fifth outbreak of H5N1 in domestic poultry in an EU state after earlier cases in France, Sweden, Germany and Denmark. Outbreaks of H5N1 have also been detected in wild birds in thirteen EU countries.
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More than 120 people have died from bird flu since late 2003, most of them in Asia, and world health officials fear that the H5N1 virus could mutate into one spread via human-to-human contact. — AFP