Europe

New bird flu cases confirmed in Germany

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-05 01:58

Germany has confirmed bird flu cased in wild birds in Thuringia while French and Austrian authorities have reported new suspected cases in wild birds in their territories, said the European Commission on Wednesday.

In Germany, the national reference laboratory has confirmed highly pathogenic bird flu virus in a black-necked grebe in Thuringia, close to the border with Saxony, where the deadly H5N1 virus had been confirmed.

The French authorities have reported a suspicion of the H5 virus in three wild swans found dead in the Moselle department, and are carrying out further tests in the national reference laboratory to confirm the exact strain of the disease.

A suspicion of highly pathogenic bird flu virus has also been reported in the district of Gmunden, Upper Austria, based on clinical signs of the disease in a number of wild birds. The Austrian national authorities have sent samples from these birds to the national reference laboratory and expect results on the strain of the virus in the coming days.

The commission said all three member states are applying the precautionary measures set out under EU legislation. National laboratories are working intensively to determine whether the outbreaks were caused by the H5N1 virus, and are keeping close contact with the Community Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza in Weybridge, Britain.

The precautionary measures consist of the establishment of a control area and a surrounding monitoring area around the positive finding.

In the control area, on-farm biosecurity measures must be strengthened, hunting of wild birds is banned, disease awareness of poultry owners must be enhanced, movement of poultry is banned except directly to the slaughterhouse and the dispatch of meat outside the zone is forbidden except where products have undergone the controls provided for in EU food controls legislation.

These latest wild bird cases follow the confirmation of H5N1 avian influenza on two poultry farms and in a wild swan in the Czech Republic, as well as cases of the disease in wild birds in Bavaria and Saxony, Germany, over the last two weeks.

The deadly H5N1 virus was responsible for over 700 reported cases of avian influenza in wild birds in the EU last year.