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Bird flu Spreads in Europe and Africa

Posted on: Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 17:00 CST

By David Evans

PARIS (Reuters) - Bird flu is likely to hit poultry flocks in a number of European states, experts said on Tuesday, while the spread of the virus to one of Africa's poorest countries, Niger, heightened fears that the infection could spread to people.

In pet-loving Europe, the report that a domestic cat in Germany had died of possible H5N1 avian influenza sparked alarm, but experts said it was unlikely the case increased the risks to humans.

Sweden became the latest in a series of new countries to report an outbreak of bird flu. Two wild ducks found dead on the Baltic coast had an aggressive form of bird flu and officials said it was likely to be confirmed as the feared H5N1 strain.

The French Agriculture Ministry said a 16th wild swan had tested positive for H5N1 in the Ain department of eastern France. Security measures have been put in place.

France has already confirmed an outbreak of the virus at a turkey farm in the same department.

Niger ordered a cull of all poultry in areas hit by bird flu and said it was stepping up checks across the rest of the semi-desert country to try to stop the disease from spreading.

The poor former French colony became the second sub-Saharan African nation after neighboring Nigeria to confirm the presence of H5N1, which mostly affects birds but which has infected 173 people, killing 93 of them since 2003.

The government in Niger held an emergency cabinet meeting and said "preventative measures" were being taken.

"They include the systematic culling of poultry in affected zones, the destruction by incineration and burying of suspect cases, of dead birds and of objects that may have been in contact with these birds," the government said in a statement.

Niger is one of the poorest countries on earth, where one child in four dies before the age of five.

Experts fear weak detection systems in Africa -- which has an estimated 1.1 billion chickens, mostly in backyard farms -- combined with the easy movement of birds across borders and limited awareness about the disease could help its spread.

RELENTLESS SPREAD

The H5N1 virus has been detected in around 20 new countries over the past month alone, crossing into Europe and Africa. The virus is endemic in birds across parts of Asia.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said H5N1 was spreading relentlessly.

"Every day there's another country ... and it's going to go all the way across (the globe) -- there's no doubt about it," he told a conference on bird flu in Washington.

"We have seen, in the past several weeks, a remarkable acceleration of the pandemic in birds," added Dr. Rajiv Venkayya, special assistant for biodefense to President George W. Bush, told the conference.

"It's something short of inevitable that we will see a case of H5N1 here in the U.S."

Iraq, which has reported two deaths from bird flu, said it was making checks for three suspected human cases in Baghdad and one in the northeastern province of Dayala.

"Concern that human cases may occur in affected parts of Africa is high, given the close contact between people and poultry," the World Health Organization said.

In addition to the reported cases in Niger and Nigeria, suspected poultry outbreaks in Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia and Sierra Leone were also under investigation, WHO said, citing reports from the World Organization for Animal Health, the

OIE.

Europe's poultry industry is being hard hit as consumers shun meat such as chicken despite reassurances it is safe to eat. France last week became the first European Union country to confirm an outbreak on a poultry farm.

"The spread of the infection to domestic poultry in other European and neighboring countries is highly likely and may even be made worse by the arrival in Europe of possibly infected birds from Africa and the Middle East next spring," the OIE said.

France, Europe's biggest poultry producer, has confirmed the first outbreak of H5N1 at a farm in the European Union. The news has prompted 20 countries to ban French poultry and France said it was in talks to reverse the bans.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said the crisis would depress demand for poultry and hit prices.

"Poultry prices are expected to continue declining, threatening industry profitability around the world," the FAO said in a statement.

The H5N1 bird epidemic has led to the culling or deaths of some 200 million birds since late 2003. It kills chickens within a day and some waterfowl such as swans, although some species of ducks carry and spread it with no apparent ill-effects.

The real fear for humans is that the virus will mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die.

(Additional reporting by Abdoulaye Massalatchi in Niamey, Niklas Pollard and Simon Johnson in Stockholm, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa, Silvia Aloisi in Rome and Maggie Fox in Washington))

Source: REUTERS

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