Five new outbreaks of bird flu virus were reported in Europe's Germany,
Switzerland and Romania yesterday.
In Germany, three wild birds in the northeastern part have tested positive
for the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, authorities said yesterday, bringing
to 117 the total number of infected birds found in the region.
Germany's first cases of the virus, announced on February 14, were on the
Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, which still accounts for most of the confirmed
cases.
Switzerland has 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.
Romania detected new suspected cases of bird flu in domestic fowl in a
village in the south-east, 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. Romania has not reported any
cases in humans.
Meanwhile, French and European officials are hoping to avert popular 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.
Eight EU countries have so far confirmed cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1
strain, but until Saturday all these cases had been found in wild birds. So far
the virus has not jumped from birds to humans.
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.
French 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.
