Bird Flu Spreads Westward Across Europe

BRUSSELS, Belgium, February 17, 2006 (ENS) - Bird flu has been found in the bodies of dead wild swans in two new European countries - Hungary and Austria - the European Commission said Wednesday. Samples have been sent to the European Community Reference Laboratory in Weybridge, UK for further tests to determine whether this is the deadly H5N1 strain that has caused the deaths of hundreds of millions of birds and more than 60 humans in the past two years.

Wild swans that died of the highly pathogenic H5N1 viral strain of bird flu have been found over the past 10 days in Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Bulgaria.

The Hungarian authorities informed the European Commission Thursday of confirmed cases of the H5 avian influenza virus in three dead wild swans found in the county of Bács-Kiskun, in southern Hungary.

The Austrian authorities informed the European Commission Thursday afternoon of a confirmed case of the H5 avian influenza virus in two dead swans found in the region of Stiria, near the city of Graz.

And in a new outbreak, the German authorities informed the European Commission last night of suspected cases of the H5N1 avian influenza virus in dead wild swans found on the island of Rugen in the Baltic Sea.

A dead swan is collected for analysis (Photo by W.B. Karesh courtesy WCS)

The Hungarian and Austrian authorities are applying the same precautionary measures as other EU member states where the H5N1 virus has been confirmed.

The precautionary measures include the establishment of a three kilometer (two mile) protection zone around the areas where the swans were found and surrounding surveillance zones of 10 kilometers.

In the protection zone, poultry must be kept indoors, movement of poultry is banned except directly to the slaughterhouse, and the dispatch of meat outside the zone is forbidden except under very limited conditions.

In both the protection and surveillance zones, on-farm biosecurity measures must be strengthened and hunting of wild birds is banned. Disease awareness raising activities for poultry owners and their families must be carried out.

The avian influenza situation in all affected countries is being reviewed by the Standing Committee on the Food and Chain and Animal Health, which met Thursday and is meeting again today.

Outside the European Union, bird flu has been found at private households in Russia's Republic of Dagestan, chief sanitary officer Gennady Onishchenko told reporters after a hearing at the State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament on Thursday.

Local and federal veterinary services are taking the necessary measures to contain the infection, and Dagestan has banned the use poultry for food, Onishchenko said.

Initial tests show the H5N1 strain of bird flu has infected birds in two more villages in eastern Romania, authorities said Thursday.

Hundreds of millions of chickens have been culled or are dead of the disease. (Photo courtesyUSDA )

Scientists in Bern are examining three dead swans found in central Switzerland to see if they were infected with bird flu, officials said Thursday. The swans were found in the cantons of Aargau, Solothurn and Schwyz.

Back in the European Union, draft decisions by the European Commission to approve co-funding for national surveillance plans and to ban imports of untreated feathers from third countries received favorable opinions Thursday from member states in the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.

Under the draft decisions, the Commission would provide up to 50 percent co-funding for national surveillance programs for the period February 1, 2006 to the end of the year - a total of €1,964 million (US$2.334 million).

The national surveillance programs aim to ensure early detection of any outbreak of avian influenza in the EU. In total, around 60,000 tests in wild birds and 300,000 in domestic birds have been submitted for co-financing for this period.

Health authorities fear that the virus might mutate to enable human-to-human transmission and then spread swiftly around the globe.

"The threat to human health will persist as long as the problem persists in animals," says Dr. Peter Horby, a public health expert with the World Health Organization in Hanoi, who works closely with the U.S. Food and Agriculture Agency in the fight against bird flu in Vietnam. "There are other diseases that cross from animals to humans, but bird flu is the most pressing issue. It is clearly an endemic problem and a definite risk to humans."