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France urges calm as H5N1 bird flu hits turkey farm

Posted on: Saturday, 25 February 2006, 08:10 CST

By Sophie Louet

PARIS (Reuters) - President Jacques Chirac urged French people on Saturday not to panic after the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was confirmed at a farm in the east of the country where thousands of turkeys had died.

It was the first case of the virus in domestic farm birds in the European Union and threatened to deal a severe blow to France's struggling poultry industry, worth 6 billion euros ($7 billion) a year and the biggest in the bloc.

Poultry sales in France are already down by about 30 percent and Japan has suspended all poultry imports from France.

Chirac reiterated it was safe to eat cooked poultry after meeting farmers and veterinarians at an annual agriculture show in Paris, where no poultry are on display this year because of safety concerns.

"Unfortunately you can see a completely unjustified sort of total panic developing," Chirac said. "There is no danger in eating poultry."

Bird flu was discovered on Thursday at a farm with 11,000 turkeys in the Ain department, a region where two cases of H5N1 had already been confirmed in wild ducks.

Laboratory tests by Afssa, France's national agency for nutritional safety, showed the virus found at the turkey farm was 99 percent identical to that found in one of the ducks, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

An investigation was under way to establish how the farm became contaminated with the virus, the ministry added.

"What worries us, and this is why we have reacted immediately, is that the farm is within the protection zone that we set up for the first duck," Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau said on Friday.

JAPAN BANS IMPORTS

The industry received another blow when Japan's embassy in Paris said on Friday that Tokyo had imposed a temporary ban on imports of French poultry products after bird flu was found at the turkey farm.

The virus is highly contagious among poultry and can spread through an entire flock within hours. It remains difficult for humans to catch but has killed more than 90 people worldwide. Experts say cooked poultry meat is safe to eat.

The virus has spread from Asia to Africa, and experts fear poultry in more regions around the world could soon be infected.

Local sources said about 80 percent of the turkeys at the French farm, in a region famous for the quality of its chickens, had died. The remaining birds were culled.

A security zone of three km (two miles) and a surveillance zone of seven km (five miles) had been set up around the farm as is usual under EU emergency measures, officials said.

Under EU rules, poultry meat, eggs and products from the zones set up around a bird flu infection site are blocked from the market, except for certain products that meet stringent conditions, such as heat-treated meat.

However, trade in these products may continue from other non-affected parts of the country.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has announced an aid package for the sector worth 52 million euros.

France has permission from the EU for a limited vaccination program in geese and ducks in three departments in the west of the country believed to be at risk from migratory birds.

Bussereau said two of the departments had decided to opt for the confinement of fowl rather than vaccination.

Source: REUTERS

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