Israel kills off poultry in bird flu battle
By Megan Goldin
The Star, 21 Mar 2006

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel poisoned hundreds of thousands of turkeys and chickens as it sought on Monday to contain an outbreak of the dangerous H5N1 strain of bird flu which has been spreading at an alarming rate. 

U.S. researchers studying human cases said the virus in people had evolved into two separate strains, complicating efforts to develop a vaccine and prevent a pandemic. 

A Palestinian farmer collects eggs in his farm in the West Bank city of Ramallah March 20, 2006. (REUTERS/Loay Abu Haykel)

The virus has rippled out from Asia to the Middle East, Europe and Africa in recent months, with migratory birds seen as the main culprits in spreading bird flu. 

A Bush administration official said on Monday that it was "increasingly likely" that bird flu would be detected in the United States as early as this year. 

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, responsible for land and natural resource management, said an early detection plan would prioritize sampling in Alaska and the Pacific islands. 

She and other administration officials who oversee U.S. agriculture and human health services unveiled a plan to increase monitoring of migratory birds experts believe could carry the virus to U.S. shores. 

Bird flu can infect people who come into close contact with infected poultry and has killed nearly 100 people since late 2003. 

Experts fear the virus will mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die and which could cripple the global economy. 

U.S. researchers said they had identified important changes to the virus in people. 

One strain, or clade, made people sick in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand in 2003 and 2004 and a second, a cousin of the first, caused the disease in people in Indonesia in 2004. 

DEATH IN EGYPT  "Back in 2003 we only had one genetically distinct population of H5N1 with the potential to cause a human pandemic. Now we have two," said Rebecca Garten of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who helped conduct the study. 

Israel's neighbor Egypt said Saturday that a 30-year-old woman had died of bird flu, the country's first reported death from the virus. 

The woman was from Qaloubiyah province, about 25 miles north of Cairo. The World Health Organization (WHO) said tests were carried out by the U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit based in Cairo and that further checks would be made at one of the WHO laboratories. 

U.N. and government officials from across Africa met on Monday in Gabon for the region's biggest bird flu conference. 

Bird flu has flared anew in Asia in recent days. 

Malaysia reported a new outbreak of H5N1 found among dead chickens in the northern state of Penang. 

Six dead chickens were found in Seberang Prai, on the mainland side of a bridge that links the resort island of Penang, one of Malaysia's top tourist attractions. 

The U.S. military in Afghanistan has provided some 50 protective suits for cull workers there. Afghanistan aims to start culling on Wednesday. 

Health experts insist that there is no health risk from eating properly cooked eggs and poultry, but bird flu scares have depressed sales of poultry. 

CUTS IN PRODUCTION  Europe should start cutting back on its production of chicks and hatching eggs as a first step to support poultry prices, the EU's farm chief said Monday. 

The EU's main consumer countries have seen poultry prices fall by between 15 and 20 percent in the last five months. 

"What is desperately needed is to reduce production. A targeted approach on hatching eggs and chicks would, from my point of view, be the most practical approach," EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told a news conference. 

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said the discovery of bird flu in the United States would not be reason to panic, noting that positive test results could turn out to be a harmless version of the virus. 

Should U.S. domestic poultry become infected, the department would "act quickly" to quarantine an affected area and destroy the infected flock, he said. Poultry farmers would be compensated for their loss, he added. 

In Israel, birds were being given poisoned water and their carcasses were being buried in large pits. Four million doses of an H5N1 vaccine for chickens were expected to arrive from the Netherlands Tuesday, the ministry said. 

Palestinian customs officials intercepted trucks carrying 5,750 baby chicks that were being smuggled into the West Bank city of Hebron from Israel illegally. The chicks were killed.