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PARIS, Sun. French and European officials are hoping to avert
panic and economic losses after the first outbreak of the deadly
H5N1 strain of bird flu to strike an EU farm was confirmed in
eastern France.
While the European Union was coming to terms with the latest
encroachment of the killer virus, back in Asia, where bird flu
was first identified, Indonesia announced its 20th victim.
The new French outbreak involves turkeys in a farm in the east
of the country. France had previously confirmed two cases of
H5N1 bird flu, but both were in wild ducks found in the same
area.
Experts fear that H5N1, which has killed more than 90 people,
mostly in Asia, since 2003, may mutate into a form that can pass
between humans, sparking a pandemic that could kill millions.
Human fatalities from the disease have been recorded in Vietnam,
Indonesia, Thailand, China, Cambodia, Turkey and Iraq.
The World Health Organisation has reported contamination by the
deadly form of the virus in 13 new countries in February.
President Jacques Chirac publicly played down the development,
munching on a piece of chicken that came from the area where the
infected turkeys were found as he inaugurated an annual
agricultural show in Paris.
"There is no interest in provoking a pyschosis, a panic, it’s
scandalous," he said, although there was no sign of poultry at
the farm show.
European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, who also visited
the Paris show, said the flu outbreak in Europe was a problem
but not a crisis, while not ruling out "real economic problems"
posed and the need to support those whose livelihoods were
threatened.
Sales of poultry from France, one of the world’s top
agricultural exporters, are already down 25 to 30 per cent on
the same period last year, with many firms in related industries
announcing staff cuts.
Japan last Friday temporarily banned French poultry imports
because of the bird flu outbreak.
Meanwhile, more European countries have confirmed cases of the
H5N1 strain, but until yesterday, all these cases had been found
in wild birds.
• Austria confirmed H5N1 in two chickens and three ducks in an
animal sanctuary in Graz. |
• Bulgaria announced H5N1 found in a wild swan in wetland near
Romania.
• The German state of Brandenburg found bird flu in two birds in
Schwedt, a city near the Polish border.
• Hungary confirmed three dead swans found near the villages of
Nagybaracska and Csatalja had H5N1.
• Slovakia’s first cases of H5N1 have been confirmed by tests on
two birds.
• Tests have confirmed a swan died of H5N1 in Slovenia. The bird
was found less than 10km from the Austrian border.
Indonesia’s human death toll from bird flu, meanwhile, hit the
20 mark yesterday with confirmation that a 27-year-old woman had
succumbed to the H5N1 virus.
The woman, a housewife who had direct contact with her
neighbour’s chickens, was admitted to a Jakarta hospital last
Monday and died the same day, officials said.
Indonesia, the world’s fourth- most populous nation, has
witnessed more bird flu deaths than any other country this year,
recording nine fatalities.
In India, animal health officials have expanded a zone for
slaughtering chickens in the west of the country after the
discovery of a second outbreak of bird flu.
Chickens at two farms in Gujarat State near the Maharashtra
State border town of Navapur, the epicentre of the initial
outbreak, were confirmed positive with the H5N1 strain
yesterday. The properties were within a 10km zone where all farm
birds were slaughtered after the initial confirmed outbreak.
Ninety-five tests on people suspected of carrying the flu
following confirmation of the first outbreak gave negative
results. — AFP
Elsewhere
IN NIGERIA OFFICIALS in Nigeria's bird-flu stricken north
are doing their utmost to convince people not to cross chicken
off their menus and televising banquets showing top officials
feasting on poultry.
Poultry farming is one of the country's biggest industries.
The authorities fear that if it collapses, hundreds of thousands
of people will be left without an income, with the potential for
serious social unrest.
In Kano, where at least 200,000 chickens have perished on 45
poultry farms as a result of bird flu or preventative culls, a
media blitz is on |
to underline that poultry meat is 100 per cent safe if
well cooked.
Poultry farmers in the neighboring state of Kaduna, where the
virus was first confirmed on Feb 8 --- a month after samples
were taken and tested positive in an Italian laboratory --- have
launched their own offensive.
They invited state governor Mohammed Makarfi and his Cabinet to
a chicken dinner on Thursday and the repast was aired on local
television. --- AFP.
IN ROMANIA NEW suspected cases of bird flu have been
detected in domestic fowl in a village in the southeast, but
more tests were needed to see if it was the deadly H5N1 strain,
authorities said yesterday.
Avian flu has been detected in 34 villages across the country
and in a small Black Sea resort since the virus was first found
in the Danube Delta in October.
"Veterinarians
detected suspected bird flu in the Topalu village in Constanta
county", the agriculture ministry said in a statement.
Topalu is around 60km northeast of the small Black Sea resort of
Navodari, where bird flu was confirmed last Sunday.
It said all
birds in the yard involved had been culled and samples were sent
to a laboratory in Bucharest to determine which strain it was.
The ministry said there were 600 households in Topalu which have
around 15,000 domestic birds.
The World Health
Organization and local experts warned earlier this month that
Romania could see human cases of bird flu because its rural
areas, where around 45 per cent of the 22 million population
live, lack proper water and severage systems. --- Reuters.
IN
SWITZERLAND AUTHORITIES in Switzerland have confirmed its
first avian flu case in one bird, though further tests are
needed to determine if it is the deadly H5N1 strain, Swiss
Federal Veterinary Office spokeswoman Cathy Maret said
yesterday.
"We have a first
case of bird flu. Its H5. The virus type has to be confirmed in
the (European Union) reference lab", Maret said, declining to
say what type of bird was infected or where it was found. ---
Reuters. |
