Poland reports first case of bird flu

By Ewa Krukowska

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland detected its first case of bird
flu, the government said on Sunday, as France, Switzerland and
Romania reported further cases of the virus.

The government said two swans found dead on the banks of
the River Vistula in the northern city of Torun had tested
positive for H5 bird flu. Tests were being carried out at a
British laboratory to determine if it was the deadly H5N1
strain.

Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz was quoted by
news agency PAP on Sunday as saying he would have chicken for
dinner — seen as an attempt to protect the poultry industry.

France’s poultry sector, Europe’s biggest, is losing 40
million euros ($48 million) a month after it last week
confirmed an outbreak of the H5N1 virus at a poultry farm. The
news prompted more than 43 countries to impose curbs on French
poultry products, including foie gras.

The pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus has spread from
Asia to Europe and Africa, infecting almost 200 people since
late 2003 and killing at least 93 of them.

Two hundred million birds across Asia, parts of the Middle
East, Europe and Africa have died of the virus or been culled.

While humans contract the virus only through close contact
with infected birds, scientists fear it could mutate into a
form passed easily from person to person, causing a pandemic
that could kill millions.

Switzerland said it had found further cases of the H5 virus
in wild birds, bringing the total number of cases so far to 11.
Samples from four dead birds had been sent to the British
laboratory to test for H5N1, the federal veterinary office
said.

BIRDS CULLED

Romania began culling birds as a precaution against the
virus after it found new suspected cases in a Danube river
village on Sunday, authorities said.

“Rapid tests on samples taken from fowl in two household
farms from the village of Borcea in the Calarasi county led to
suspicion of bird flu,” the Agriculture Ministry said in a
statement. It said around 100,000 birds were being culled.
Further tests will be done in Bucharest to see if it is H5N1.

On Friday, Romanian authorities detected H5N1 in domestic
birds in a village 80 km (50 miles) west of the capital and in
a wild goose in the city of Buzau.

Avian flu has been found in 40 villages and a small Black
Sea resort since the virus was first detected in the Danube
Delta in October. Hundreds of thousands of birds have been
culled. Romania has not reported any human cases.

France said 10 seagulls carrying the H5 bird flu virus were
found dead last week in the northern Pas-de-Calais region along
the Channel coast, but an official said the birds, found on
Thursday close to France’s biggest fishing port
Boulogne-sur-Mer, were not carrying the H5N1 strain.

Polish authorities said they had informed the European
Commission of the outbreak and taken precautionary measures,
including establishing a high-risk zone 3 kilometers (2 miles)
around the outbreak and placing restrictions on the six poultry
farms and four processing plants in the region.

Poland last month imposed a ban on keeping poultry in open
spaces after bird flu was confirmed in neighboring Germany.

(Additional reporting by Karolina Slowikowska, Tom
Armitage, Marguerita Choy and Radu Marinas)