02/19 | Deadly bird flu breaks out in Russia

Link to yesterday's thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?t=186854

Deadly bird flu breaks out in Russia​

By UPI
Feb 19, 2006, 19:00 GMT

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (UPI) -- More than half a million birds have died in Dagestan since avian influenza hit Russia`s southernmost region.

Federal Consumer Rights and Human Well Being Service told Itar-Tass that 350,000 birds died at one poultry farm, Eldama, in the Karabudakhkent district between Jan. 25 and Feb. 1, and 76,000 at the Makhachkalinskaya farm in Shamkhal between Feb. 6 and Feb. 8. Another 120,000 birds were slaughtered.

The dead birds tested positive for the virulent H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

The strain, first detected in southeast Asia, spread to China. More recently, migratory birds have carried the virus across Asia. It was recently discovered in dead swans in Austria and Germany.

The Makhachkalinskaya farm is under quarantine, Itar-Tass reported. At Eldama, all the birds died.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/health/printer_1131161.php

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<B><font size=+1 color=red><center>India, France Confirm 1st Bird Flu Cases</font>

By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM
Associated Press Writer
February 18 2006
<A href="http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060218/API/602180648">www.heraldtribune.com</a></center>
BOMBAY, India -- India and France both confirmed their first outbreak of the deadly strain of bird flu among fowl, and on Sunday health officials and farm workers in western India began slaughtering a half-million birds to check the spread of the disease.</b>

Tens of thousands of chickens have died from bird flu in recent weeks in western India, and people suffering from flu-like symptoms in the region were to be tested for the infection, officials said.

Saturday's announcement from France and India came as other nations fought to contain outbreaks of the H5N1 strain, which has spread from Asia amid fears of a worldwide flu pandemic if the virus mutates into a form that is easily transmitted between humans. Bird flu has killed at least 91 people - most of them in Asia - since 2003, according to World Health Organization figures.

In western India, officials began slaughtering 500,000 birds in a 1.5-mile radius around the poultry farms in the town of Navapur where the confirmed cases were detected, said Anees Ahmed, the minister for animal husbandry in the state of Maharashtra.

Heavy earth movers were being used to bury the carcasses, he said. Top health officials would meet with heads of some 52 big poultry farms in the area through Sunday, he said.

"They have to be told that they must begin destroying their stocks of chicken," said Ahmed.

An unknown number of people in the area were reportedly suffering from flu and fever, and scientists were to start testing them on Sunday, said Milind Gore, deputy director of the National Institute of Virology in Pune.

At least 30,000 chickens have died in and around Navapur, a major poultry-farming region of Maharashtra, over the past two weeks, Ahmed said.

Police have cordoned off the area around the poultry farms, Ahmed said.

An area of 3 to 5 miles around the cordoned region will be under surveillance, and all poultry not killed will be vaccinated against bird flu, the health ministry said in a statement.

Indian chicken farmers were devastated by the announcement.

"All of us will have to start again from scratch, and I don't know how many of us will survive," Ghulam Vhora, a member of the Navapur Poultry Farmers Association, said Saturday. "Most farmers cannot believe the news and are hoping the lab tests confirming bird flu are wrong."

France confirmed its first case of the H5N1 strain in a wild duck found dead in a bird reserve some 20 miles northeast of Lyon, France's third-largest city, the Agriculture Ministry said. All fowl have been ordered indoors or vaccinated there.

"There's a little bit of panic because we don't know what to do," said Madeleine Monnet, 60, in the town of Joyeux, where the diseased bird was discovered. "Here everybody has a little bit of fowl - chickens or ducks - for their personal consumption."

Countries from Europe to Asia were struggling with their outbreaks.

In Indonesia, another man died from the H5N1 virus, bringing the nation's death toll to 19, a Health Ministry official confirmed Saturday.

The man, who died Feb. 10, had frequent contact with poultry, said Hariadi Wibisono, a health ministry official.

German and Austrian authorities ordered all poultry and fowl kept indoors, and in Germany, 28 wild birds were diagnosed with the deadly strain on the same northern island where the country's first cases were detected earlier this week.

Egypt's agriculture minister, meanwhile, said Saturday that the number of cases of bird flu in the country are not high enough to warrant large-scale slaughter of birds, but that authorities will act accordingly if the disease spreads.

There have been conflicting reports about the number of H5N1 cases found in Egypt, but the government said Friday there had been seven cases in three provinces.

"The disease is not at a level that leads to getting rid of large numbers" of fowl, Amin Abaza told the Arabic-language Al-Arabiya satellite channel. "There are known international measures that are taken. Poultry within a certain radius get culled."

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<B><font size=+1 color=brown><center>Bird flu kills Thai boy </font>

<A href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/18/content_4198267.htm">www.chinaview.cn</a>
2006-02-18 22:56:12 </center>
BANGKOK, Feb. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- A 5-year-old boy in Thai Nakhon Nayok province outside Bangkok has died of bird flu, becoming the 14th Thai victim of avian influenza, local media reported Saturday.

News of the death of the youngster came as a shock. Thailand has been largely free of bird flu in the past two months, since a small outbreak killed a man last October, the Bangkok Post said on its web edition.</b>

The boy died in hospital on Wednesday, Thai Deputy Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakula was quoted as saying. He was not known to have had direct contact with chickens, but investigations are continuing.

The death brings the Asian death toll from H5N1 avian flu to 70. Enditem

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<B><center>Sauerkraut: Bird flu fighter?
<font size=+1 color=green>Sales jump for The Fremont Company</font>

By LaRAYE BROWN
Staff writer
<A href="http://www.centralohio.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/BB/20060218/NEWS01/602180303/1002&template=BB">www.centralohio.com</a></center>
What is bird flu?
The avian influenza virus is typically carried in wild birds' intestines, the Federal Drug Administration said. The birds, however, typically don't get sick from the flu. When they do, it can be deadly.

The FDA says people have a low risk of being infected with it. The World Health Organization said earlier this week that 169 people have been infected and 91 have died. The Fremont Company hasn't claimed sauerkraut is a cure. </b>

The folks at The Fremont Company are looking to put their money where their sales boost is, and it's not with a savvy public relations agency.

It's with the Seoul National University in Korea.

The university last fall released a study saying that juice from Kimchi, the Korean version of sauerkraut, was fed to 13 birds infected with the avian flu and that 11 of the birds showed signs of improvement.

"I have a Korean contact ... I'm having them track down the professor at the university and see if he's interested in furthering his studies and maybe we can assist with that," said Chris Smith, vice president of the market at The Fremont Company, which sells its kraut under the Frank's and Snowfloss brands.

Worldwide concern about humans being infected by a strain of the virus began spreading in the fall.

International news media picked up news of the possible avian flu-fighting qualities of the Lactobacillus bacteria in sauerkraut. The U.S. arrival of the story coincided with a jump in sales for The Fremont Company.

"I'm not sure it got people who don't like sauerkraut to give it a try," Smith said. "It's a healthy product. People who like it, I think, they went out and bought it and used more. They took the route that they'd rather be safe than sorry."

Smith wouldn't release sales figures but said the resulting spike was enough to reduce The Fremont Company's seasonal layoff.

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<B><center>Sunday 19th, February, 2006

<font size=+1 color=blue>Africa And Bird Flu</font>

By Yinka Oyegbile
Emailgbile@yahoo.com

<font size=+0 color=purple>From winter, plague and pestilence, good Lord, deliver us</font>
<A href="http://www.independentng.com/sunday/grfeb190601.htm">www.independentng.com</a></center>
I was just a few pages into the reading of John M. Barry’s book, The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History , when the news broke that the deadly bird flu virus has landed in Nigeria. I shivered when I heard about it and felt like most of those who were afflicted by the 1918 plague would have felt.</b>

True, this is the 21st Century and the world has advanced beyond what it was in 1918 when the Great Influenza killed more people than those consumed by World War I. It was that bad and serious.

For those who may not know, the 1918 plague started in a military camp during the war and spread so fast that it killed in millions and all efforts to rein it in were almost defeated because of the fact that advances in science were not as far as they are today.

The Avian Bird Flu known, as H5N1 has been ravaging Asia in the past five months or so, and several warnings and alerts have been issued that it could spread to other parts of the world by migratory birds. It is therefore expected that all countries should have been prepared to combat it or prevent it. Before now epidemiologists and those versed in the study of movement of birds should have raised awareness about it. Well, being that it is spread by migratory birds, prevention could be difficult because you cannot stop birds from flying. They respect no borders. But couldn’t there have been lots of preparation and enlightenment of the populace?

Before the strain was publicly acknowledged to be present in Jaji, Kaduna State, there had been reports of death of several birds in a farm in Kano. This was not viewed as having any link with the flu despite the fact that many birds died and the numbers far outweighed what could have been thought to be that associated with the risk of poultry farming in this part of the world.

It is important to call attention to the need to brace up with a solution or whether to quarantine any farm or chickens that have been infected. But this is going to be real difficult to do. The reason for this is the fact that many of those who engage in chicken farming are doing so without any government assistance or loan. To now expect such people to submit their birds to be killed due to the infection would be hard. The loss is going to be too much to bear for them. Rather than come forward to have their birds tested, many would prefer to keep them in their farms just like that.

The resistance of farmers to the destruction of their birds has been confirmed by the director of special projects in the federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Abdulsalami Nasidi.

According to him “ The truth is that people quietly eat dying chickens and do not listen to warnings from the health officials. When you go to them, they ask you, ‘What are you telling us? We have been eating dying chickens for centuries. How can you tell us not to eat them now?”

It is unfortunate that the flu has come to Africa and that the first strain was noticed in Nigeria. It has further given the country a lot of image problem, which may take sometime to lift. For instance, many countries such as Ghana, Kenya and others have banned all kinds of importation of chicken products from Nigeria.

The cost of this is enormous, as many farmers who depend on this for their livelihood are going to be badly affected. Africa, and not only Nigeria, must be helped to contain this deadly flu as I am not certain that there is any country on the continent, with the exception perhaps of South Africa, that has anything to combat the spread.

This is dangerous because it does not only affect birds but it has the power to mutate in humans. And from the way most of us live in Africa, chickens are reared at home and in the backyard. In fact, in some rural communities chickens and humans almost share one shelter. The effect of this is that since the virus could be spread to humans, the continent is not save as most people live in neighbourhood where there are poultry pens while others rear local birds in the open yard of their houses. Scientists have already expressed fears that a global epidemic of the flu in humans could occur, since history repeats itself three or four times in a century.

The other day, I saw on the CNN how Asians were combating and dealing with infected chickens. You could see that the health officials and poultry workers in the infected farms were well kitted in protective uniform. On the other hand, I saw on our local television how farm workers were carrying dead infected birds with unprotected hands and burning the carcasses in the open. In this situation, most of them go home in the same clothes they wore into the farm and infect their families with the virus. This is dangerous as the variant of the avian flu virus, if combined with human strain of influenza, could lead to a pandemic.

Back to the book I am reading, we must not let 1918 repeat itself. It is important for our leaders to once in a while take a leave from their “political garrisons” and see what is happening in the real world away from politics. The invasion of bird flu has once again exposed how lax we are about issues of public health in the country. There are several diseases that are quietly killing people in this country and those who are supposed to know or act pretend ignorance. I agree that sometimes there might be cause for them not to know but this is not in all cases.

Nigeria, indeed Africa, has enough diseases and virus already, we cannot afford to add avian flu to it. All United Nations agencies and world bodies need to come to the rescue and mount genuine surveillance and rescue operations to cage in this deadly flu.

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<B><font size=+1 color=purple><center>Keep Watch On The Weather Urges MEP In Bird Flu Warning</font>

By David McCoy
Saturday 18th February 2006
<A href="http://www.farminglife.com/story/6451">www.farminglife.com</a></center>
THE public, Government and industry have been urged to to stay on guard for any signs of Avian Influenza spreading to Northern Ireland.

And speaking as four EU Member States confirmed outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of Avian Flu, Ulster Unionist MEP, Jim Nicholson, warned that "we must watch the weather in the weeks ahead as migratory birds travel north."</b>

In a statement, Mr Nicholson said: " Given the seriousness of the situation in some Member States we must all maintain a high degree of vigilance in the coming weeks.

"Early detection and maintaining biosecurity will be the key to reducing the spread and extent of the disease should it reach Northern Ireland.

"While no-one wishes to stoke unnecessary fears, the latest outbreak, brings the threat ever-closer to these shores.

Watching the weather in Continental Europe will be crucial in the weeks ahead. If it stays cold then migratory birds, who could be potentially carrying the disease may move westward increasing the chances of the disease spreading.

Poultry farm owner dies of suspected bird flu in India​

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1573398.htm

A man has died of suspected bird flu in western India, a top official said.

The death comes a day after India reported its first bird flu infections in poultry.

"A poultry farm owner died on Friday in Surat district. Local tests have confirmed bird flu but we have sent samples to the national laboratory. A final report is awaited," Vatsala Vasudev, the top district administrator of Surat in western Gujarat state, told Reuters.

Gujarat is adjacent to Maharashtra state, where 50,000 birds died in past days and tests on some of the fowl proved positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus.

The dead man, Ganesh Sonarkar, 27, was a resident of Nandurbar district of Maharashtra state, Ms Vasudev said. She did not elaborate why he had had travelled to Surat.

"An alert has been sounded across Gujarat following the outbreak," the official said.

A local health official in Surat, O P Tiwari, said Mr Sonarkar was admitted to a hospital in the town about 10 days ago and was "provisionally diagnosed with bird flu".

"He died on Friday," Mr Tiwari said.

Adding to the sense of crisis, blood samples of eight people have also been sent for testing to a virology laboratory in the western city of Pune.

Four other people, including three children, were under observation. It was not clear if Mr Sonarkar was among the eight being tested.

"We sent blood samples of these people who are associated with poultry because they had cold and cough," Vijay Satbir Singh, Maharashtra's top health official, told Reuters.

"We want to make sure they don't have any kind of flu."

Health workers in Maharashtra began culling about 300,000 chickens and vaccinating birds on Sunday.

Maharashtra, India's richest and most industrialised state, has hundreds of poultry farms and officials say there are around 900,000 fowl in Nandurbar alone.

-Reuters

Bulgaria reports 1st suspected huamn case of bird flu​

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/19/content_4199866.htm

SOFIA, Feb. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- A Bulgarian man suspected of having caught bird flu has been put into an isolation chamber for close observation and tests, Bulgarian telegraph agency reported on Saturday.

The 32-year-old man from the southern Bulgarian village of Preslavtsi is the first Bulgarian that is suspected of suffering from bird flu.

He had touched his dead ducks with his hands but did not show all symptoms of bird flu now, Todor Gogovski, a doctor from a hospital at the southern city of Haskovo, was quoted as saying.

The test results will be known in the coming days. The dead fowls were also being tested by veterinary departments for the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus.

On Feb. 11, the European Central Reference Laboratory in Britain confirmed that two dead swan found at Bulgaria's Danube riverside carried the H5N1 bird flu virus. Bulgaria's Agriculture and Forestry Minister Nihat Kabil later warned the country of a possible bird flu outbreak.

In Europe, H5N1 presence has been confirmed in Austria, France,Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Slovenia. Enditem

Austria finds two H5N1 cases near Vienna​

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L181157.htm

(Adds duck, swan found with H5N1 near Vienna)

VIENNA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Austria found two cases of deadly H5N1 bird flu virus near Vienna on Saturday, raising the total number of cases there to seven and prompting a nationwide order to confine poultry indoors, the health ministry said.

Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat told a news conference that a dead swan found in the Vienna suburb of Donaustadt and a dead duck found in nearby Lower Austria province had tested positive for suspected H5N1 infection.

She said a poultry protection zone already established in southern Austria, where four swans and a duck tested positive for H5N1 earlier this week, had been extended throughout the Alpine republic as a result of Saturday's discoveries.

Laboratory tests on two other dead ducks found in the southern province of Styria were due on Monday.

The findings must be confirmed at the European Union's reference laboratory in Weybridge, England.

"We are well equipped (to handle bird flu) and have everything under control. We can clearly signal to all Austrians that no danger to people exists," Rauch-Kallat told ORF public radio earlier on Saturday.

"It's absolutely necessary to keep a close eye on this problem, take it very seriously, and coordinate measures against it across the EU and beyond. But there is no reason for panic."

Mauritania records suspicious poultry deaths​

http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=417643

Nouakchott, Mauritania, 02/17 - Several suspicious deaths of poultry have been reported over the past few days in the Mauritanian locality of Toufdé-Civet, Kaedi region, within the Senegal River basin, official sources said here Monday.

The deaths reported near the Mauritanian border with Senegal and two nearby villages, the sources said, adding that a joint delegation from the ministries of health and of rural development and environment, visited the area at the weekend.

The team, which took samples of blood and organs, also helped to slaughter and incinerate scores of chickens in the area, the sources said, explaining that the samples were taken for analysis in Dakar, Senegal.

The delegation considered the zone to be "a possible bird flu infection area."

Bird flu has been reported in northern and central Nigeria, prompting authorities in Nouakchott to ban all poultry imports from that country, which accounts for more than 30 percent of Mauritania`s poultry supply.

Mauritania is considered a major transit route for wild migratory birds from Europe.

At a meeting in Tunisia last Friday, the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) member States adopted a joint plan to fight bird flu, which has killed at least 100 people and millions of birds in Europe and Asia from 2003.

Bird flu advances to Europe's largest poultry producer​

20/02/2006- The deadly form of avian influenza has hit Europe's largest poultry producer, with France's government confirming over the weekend that the H5N1 form of the virus was found in a dead duck and possibly some swans.

The steady creep of avian influenza toward the heart of the EU is feeding into consumers' fears about their health and the safety of the bloc's poultry flocks. Earlier this year, four children died in Turkey, the first ever confirmed deaths of humans due to bird flu outside of Asia. The deaths and the encroachment into the EU's borders makes for a dismal prognosis for poultry processors who face both a narrowing of their supply sources and a fall in consumption demand.

So far infection of poultry flocks or human deaths have not been detected within the EU's borders.

France is the sixth EU member state to report finding the deadly form of bird flu in wild birds, following confirmation from Hungary, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Greece. Bird flu has also been found in Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and Turkey. France is also the world's fourth largest poultry producer.

Last week, before the discovery of the infection, the UK's Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) reported that in France chicken consumption has fallen by about 20 per cent since the beginning of 2006. Poultry producers in the country normally have annual sales of about €5.2m.

Tests on the bird, found in the central-eastern Ain department last Monday, confirmed that it was carrying the highly pathogenic strain of the flu, the
Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing said Saturday in a statement.

Zones of protection as required by EU law have been put in place; the ministry stated on its Internet site.

Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau has also announced that about 900,000 birds in the three western French districts of Landes, Loire-Atlantique, and Vendee will be vaccinated starting Wednesday.

Doux, France's largest poultry processor, told Reuters news agency that the level of orders from the Middle East, for February and March, are down between 20 to 30 per cent.

The company's website says all the group's poultry farms are fitted out with health barriers.

"The structures used by the group's partner farmers are isolated from the outside world and the poultry cannot under any circumstances come into contact with migratory animals," the company stated, adding that there is a strict separation of species and poultry is transported by truck and with equipment that is cleaned and disinfected.

France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Sweden have all taken steps last week to try to prevent the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain, which can be transmitted to humans.

The countries ordered that domestic fowl be kept in screened, ventilated buildings to prevent contact with wild birds potentially carrying the disease. The UK and the Netherlands have made similar precautions.

Meanwhile the UK's authorities seem to have accepted that bird flu will eventually show up in the country following in incident in France. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said it has consulted with ornithological and meteorological experts and with key industry stakeholders.

"We have concluded that this is a new development which increases the likelihood that H5N1 may be found in the UK," stated Fred Landeg, Defra's deputy chief veterinary officer stated on Friday. "However, we believe that the existing precautionary measures that we have in place remain sufficient and appropriate for the time being."

The consultant ornithologists have advised Defra that ducks from the Lyon region do not normally fly to the UK at this time of the year. However the pochard duck uses the East Atlantic flyway, which is the same migratory path under which the UK lies.

“We have existing robust surveillance measures in place and have taken over 3500 samples from wild birds, which so far have not detected H5N1 in the UK," Defra stated.

In December Defra launched a poultry register. Its purpose is to provide a central database of information on poultry premises. Keepers with 50 or more birds have a statutory obligation to register.

Last week the European Commission announced two new measures designed to limit the disease had received favourable opinions from member states. A Commission proposal to approve member states' individual surveillance plans for avian influenza, and to provide up to 50 per cent co-funding for the programmes was endorsed by the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health.

The measures include a three km ‘protection zone’ around the place where the birds with H5 infection were found for at least 30 days along with a 10 km ‘surveillance zone’ for the next three weeks.

Within the protection zone poultry must be kept indoors. All movement of poultry, excluding direct transportation to a slaughterhouse is banned. No meat may be transported outside the protection zone.

In both the protection and surveillance zone farm biosecurity measures must be strengthened and the hunting of wild birds is banned. All bird markets and exhibitions are banned.

Early warning measures are in place in all member states to ensure quick detection of the disease, both in domestic and wild birds. Contingency plans call for the rapid control and eradication of avian influenza should it occur in poultry farms.

H5N1 was first detected in birds in the WHO European Region in late July 2005. Since then, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has reported confirmed cases of H5N1 in birds in eleven countries in the region.

The WHO global pandemic alert remains unchanged at level three. Avian influenza is still primarily an animal disease. It has caused disease in humans, but is not yet spreading efficiently and sustainably among humans.

The Italian farmers' association report reported last week that the industry is losing €6m a day, and has lost a total of about €650m so far.

The Italian poultry market annually produces 13bn eggs, 430m chickens, 40m hens, 36m turkeys and 100m other species for a total of 1,200,000 tonnes of meat. The agricultural sector had a turnover of €4.2bn, the association reported.

The IGD survey found that 40 per cent of consumers in the UK were "worried or rather worried" about their health due to the risk of avian flu spreading.

In France and Spain the figure is 50 per cent, while 30 per cent of Germans feel the same way about the disease. The survey found that the spread of the disease had not seemed to affect British attitudes toward buying chicken.

About 80 per cent of those surveyed reported no change in their purchasing habits. About 12 to 13 per cent reported they bought less, while about eight per cent reported buying more. Younger shoppers are more likely than any other age demographic group to have changed their purchasing behaviour, the survey found.

The IGD also reported that 17 per cent of shopper who eat out bought less British poultry compared to nine per cent of those who cook from scratch.

Lessons learned from previous outbreaks of BSE and food and mouth diseases in livestock indicate that the industry needs to ensure they provide a credible source of information about avian influenza, the IGD said.

Other countries consumption falls are also indicative of the fear affecting the industry. Poultry sales in Turkey have dropped by 70 per cent since bird flu was reported in humans earlier in January, according to a report in Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper. Kemal Akman, head of the union of poultry producers, is quoted as saying the industry would suffer losses amounting to €30 million per month.

In Spain, the bird flu scare resulted in a short-lived reduction in poultry meat consumption during late October and early November. By the third week of November poultry consumption had rebounded to top that of the previous year by 13 per cent, the Spanish government said.

Now H5N1 avian influenza is in Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Africa, along with its original starting point in east Asia. The disease has led to the culling of millions of poultry.

Since the latest outbreak began in December 2003, avian flu has killed more than 90 people in four Southeast Asian countries and killed or led to culling of an estimated 200 million birds across the region and in Turkey and Russia.

Indonesia vaccinated 114 million poultry against avian flu with traditionally made vaccine in 2004. India last week confirmed the presence of avian flu and has started a mass culling of poultry.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that the virus could become entrenched in the Black Sea, Caucasus and Near East regions through trade and movement of people and animals and it could be further spread by migratory birds particularly coming from Africa in the spring.

“Fighting the avian influenza virus in animals is the most effective and cost-effective way to reduce the likelihood of H5N1 mutating or reassorting to cause a human flu pandemic,” the FAO stated. “Containing bird flu in domestic animals – mostly chickens and ducks - will significantly reduce the risk to humans. Avian influenza should not only be considered as a human health issue, but as a human and animal health issue."

The FAO has expressed growing concern that the bird flu virus H5N1 may spread to other countries in West Africa following the discovery of the virus in Nigeria earlier this month.

http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/printNewsBis.asp?id=65921

Panic sets in as flu goes west​

February 20, 2006

WESTERN Europe has been preparing for months for the arrival of bird flu, with health officials urging calm in the face of the spreading epidemic. Apparently, no one was listening.

"The feathered death - it has landed", blared a headline from the Berlin newspaper BZ.

The H5N1 strain crossed into Western Europe last week. Six European Union states and Iran and India have now confirmed its presence.

The Italian Health Ministry has received more than 13,000 phone calls to a special hotline in the past week, and poultry sales have plunged 70 per cent. An Italian poll showed eight out of 10 consumers would not buy chicken, even though cooking destroys the virus.

Italians are already claiming the virus has claimed its first human victims there - Claudio Rubello, a truck driver, murdered his wife and child before killing himself after losing his job delivering chickens.

Hundreds of panicked swimmers were evacuated from a Hong Kong swimming pool on Saturday when a bird flew into the water.

Indian officials said yesterday that preliminary tests on a dead farmer had found no human bird flu. The poultry farm owner had died in the western state of Gujarat, adjacent to Maharashtra state, where 50,000 birds have died in recent days and tests on some dead fowl proved positive for the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Indonesia has confirmed its 19th death from bird flu.

Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Deutsche Presse-Agentur

http://smh.com.au/news/world/panic-sets-in-as-flu-goes-west/2006/02/19/1140283948333.html#

Ireland: Irish Organic Farmers

Organic poultry farmers may suffer if bird flu spreads​

19/02/2006 - 13:19:35

Irish farmers could be forced to remove the organic title from poultry stocks if the H5N1 bird flu virus arrives in Britain.

More than 1,000 Irish organic farmers could be forced to house poultry stocks which could result in the organic free range title being rescinded by the Department of Agriculture.

The Irish Organic Farmers Association hopes the Government will make special short-term concessions for farmers.

Kate Carmody is Vice President of the Association, she said:

“I think what we’ll have to do is look for a derogation that if there is a national crisis in terms of bird flu that we’d have to bring the animals in and that they wouldn’t lose their ‘organic’ status as long as they were still being fed organically”.

http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=173249576&p=y73z5xz8z&n=173250336

Egypt

Cairo zoo closes after bird flu reaches Egypt​

February 19, 2006, 16:30

Egyptian authorities closed Cairo zoo and seven other state-run zoos around the country for two weeks from today to prevent the spread of bird flu after cases of the H5N1 virus were detected on Thursday. Cairo zoo manager Talaat Sidraus said that zoo workers has immediately started disinfecting bird cages.

Witnesses saw dead and sick birds inside the zoo grounds today but it was not immediately clear if they had bird flu. Large flocks of egrets and other wild birds live in the trees in and around the zoo. The authorities have reported cases of bird flu in seven provinces, stretching from Dakahlia in the northeast of the Nile Delta to Qena in the far south. At least 10 000 birds have been culled at a chicken farm north of Cairo.

On Sunday, merchants who normally slaughter and sell live chickens on the street had closed in compliance with a ban. Some remained open but had few customers. The government said it was importing 73 000 packets of Tamiflu, one of the few medicines thought to alleviate the symptoms of the disease when it hits humans.

No human cases have been diagnosed in Egypt. - Reuters

http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/north_africa/0,2172,121988,00.html

India

18 Feb 2006 14:26 GMT

India Confirms 1st Case Of Bird Flu Caused By H5N1 Strain​

BOMBAY (AP)--Lab tests have confirmed that at least some of the chickens that died of bird flu in western India in recent weeks died of the deadly H5N1 strain, a state minister said Saturday.

Officials plan to immediately begin slaughtering birds in a 1.5-mile radius around the poultry-farming area, in the town of Navapur, where the confirmed cases were detected, Anees Ahmed, the Maharashtra state minister for animal husbandry said.

"Around 500,000 birds will be killed," he said.

At least 30,000 chickens have died in Navapur, in the poultry-farming district of Nandurbar, over the past two weeks, Ahmed said.

"It is confirmed the deaths were caused by the H5N1strain," Ahmed said. "We're destroying birds in a 1.5-mile radius."

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-18-06 0926ET

http://framehosting.dowjonesnews.com/sample/samplestory.asp?StoryID=2006021814260000&Take=1

WA-DC

Washington, DC Hosting Bird Flu Summit For Businesses​

19 Feb 2006

Business leaders will have access to bird flu experts from around the world to address pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery February 27-28, 2006, at Washington, DC's first Bird Flu Summit.

Bird flu experts will focus on the business-related issues in pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery at Washington, DC's first Bird Flu Summit to be held February 27-28, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City near Reagan National Airport.

The 2-day event, featuring public sector and private sector leaders addressing the bird flu threat, will be co-chaired by international healthcare advisor Dr. Joseph Agris (www.flulab.com), and will present collective approaches to pandemic influenza preparedness and business continuity planning.

Special emphasis will be placed on identifying the responsibilities of various stakeholders in order to improve communications, coordination and collaboration worldwide.

Dr. Agris will also outline proposed measures for Iraq, where bird flu deaths have been recently reported.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Confirmed speakers and topics include: (see link) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=38000#

Italy

[February 19, 2006]

New bird flu case detected in central Italy​

(Comtex Environment Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)ROME, Feb 19, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A wild duck found dead in central Italy had been confirmed to be carrying the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu, raising to 11 the total number of cases found in the country, the Italian Health Ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry said the duck was found near Lake Trasimeno in the central Italian region of Umbria on Feb. 13.

Italy reported its first cases of bird flu last week when eight wild swans found in the southern regions of Puglia, Calabria and Sicily tested positive for the virus.

The government has begun to carry out a series of precautionary measures, including the creation of a 3-kilometer high-risk
protective zone around each outbreak area, and a surveillance zone of an additional 7 km.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, thus sparking a pandemic.

Bird flu has spread across Europe, with confirmed cases in Hungary, Greece, Italy, Ukraine and Romania, and suspected ones in Austria and Slovenia.

At least 91 of the 169 people known to have been infected with the H5N1 strain have died, mainly in Asia, according to the World Health Organization.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/02/19/1386233.htm

(BBC 19 February 2006)
The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has continued to spread, with India, France and Iran becoming the latest countries to confirm the presence of the virus.
In western India the strain was found among thousands of dead chickens at a farm, and health officials are testing eight people for possible infection.

France and Iran also reported their first H5N1 cases, following tests carried out on dead birds.

The strain has killed at least 90 people since it emerged in 2003.

It can be caught by humans who handle infected birds, but it is not yet known to have been passed between people.

(snip)

In India, H5N1 was found among the carcasses of about 50,000 chickens from a farm in western Maharashtra state.

No human cases had been detected so far, but tests were being carried out on several people.

One local poultry farmer who died on Friday was not found to be carrying the disease, preliminary results showed.

More than 500,000 chickens in the area are being culled.

A 3km (two-mile) exclusion zone has been established around the infected farm, and another one million chickens from nearby farms will be vaccinated.

In other developments:


Austria records two more cases of H5N1 bird flu near Vienna, bringing its number of cases to seven.

Indonesia confirms its 19th human death from the disease.

In Hong Kong, a dead magpie tests positive for the disease - the ninth infected bird to have been found in the territory in three weeks.

Egyptian authorities cull 10,000 birds at a chicken farm near Cairo, a day after Egypt reported its first cases of H5N1.

France's first H5N1 case was confirmed following tests on a dead duck near Lyon.

France - Europe's largest poultry producer and a crossroads for migrating birds - has been on high alert for bird flu for months.

As soon as a case was suspected, the French government ordered all fowl to be either vaccinated or confined indoors to protect them from infection.

But the BBC's Caroline Wyatt in Paris says French farmers already fear their livelihoods are under threat, even though no avian flu has been found in French poultry.

Confirmation of the deadly disease in France brings to seven the number of European countries infected by the H5N1 strain over the past week.

Earlier this week, the EU approved a series of measures to try to halt the spread of the virus, including the automatic creation of protection and surveillance zones around outbreaks in wild birds.

If the virus transfers from wild birds to poultry "buffer zones" that could cover an entire region could be established and the transport of poultry restricted within them.

In Iran, tests on more than 100 dead swans found in wetlands in the northern province of Gilan showed the presence of H5N1.

Despite the outbreak, Iranian veterinary chief Hossein Hassani said there was "no concern" about humans contracting the disease.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4728632.stm

India

FACTBOX - India's poultry sector and steps against bird flu​

Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:29 PM IST170

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India said on Sunday a dead poultry farm owner is the country's first suspected death from bird flu.

The country is a major poultry producer and has begun an emergency campaign to stop bird flu from spreading in birds and people after 50,000 poultry died in recent days in Maharashtra.

The $6.7 billion poultry industry has taken rapid strides in Asia's third largest economy, emerging from a backyard sector to a full-fledged commercial industry in less than three decades.

Following are some facts about the industry and the efforts the government has taken to curtail the spread of bird flu in India.

The figures have been collected from various government Web sites and publications.

-- India had nearly 500 million poultry at the end of 2003.

-- The country produced 45.2 billion eggs in the year to March 2005, placing it among the top-five egg-producing nations in the world.

-- The per-capita availability of eggs has gone up to 41 in the billion plus nation from 25 in 1990-91, when India opened up its socialistic economy to foreign competition.

-- Maharashtra, India's most industrialised state, is the country's third largest producer of eggs.

Safety measures instituted by the government to stop the outbreak of bird flu. These measures were put in place in January 2004, soon after the virus resurfaced in Asia:

-- Import of poultry and poultry-related products has been completely banned from infected countries.

-- Check posts and quarantine stations on borders with neighbouring countries have been set up.

-- Customs has been directed not to clear poultry or poultry products from foreign countries without getting it cleared from the quarantine department.

($1 = 44.3 rupees)

http://in.today.reuters.com/news/ne...172021Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-237355-1.xml

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=59418

Yet Another Report on Bird Flu Patient in Bulgaria

Politics: 19 February 2006, Sunday.

A woman was hospitalized in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv after showing symptoms of bird flu.

The patient was admitted to hospital on Friday with bilateral pneumonia and respiratory deficiency, doctors from Plovdiv's infections hospital said.

All necessary tests were immediately carried out, but despite initial negative results doctors will wait for their confirmation over samples sent to Sofia.

The woman is very sick, doctors said.

The news broke a day after a hospital in Haskovo reported on а man also treated for suspected bird flu. His results are expected within a week.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20060219073308&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=-447

Bird flu spreads as India tests dozens of people
Monday February 20 2006 00:00 IST

Reuters

MUMBAI/PARIS: India said it was testing dozens of people for bird flu on Sunday, while France confirmed its first avian cases of the H5N1 virus as the deadly strain spread around the globe.

The Indian government said on Sunday that earlier fears of the country's first human victim were unfounded, after “preliminary” tests on a dead farmer showed he was not affected.

“Preliminary investigations by the rapid response teams at Navapur indicate that this patient had no exposure to poultry,” a union health ministry statement said.

Avian influenza has flared anew in recent weeks, spreading among birds in Europe and parts of Africa, and prompting authorities to impose bans on the poultry trade, introduce mass culling and vaccinate poultry flocks.

In India, officials launched an emergency campaign to try to contain the virus, which experts fear might mutate to allow it to pass between people, potentially triggering a pandemic.

Another official said blood samples of 30 people from bird flu-hit Nandurbar district in Maharashtra had been sent for testing for the H5N1 virus, a top official told Reuters.

“All these people were showing flu-like symptoms and we have sent their blood and sputum samples for testing for bird flu,” said Vijay Satbir Singh, the state's top health official, said.

India, the world's second most populous nation and a major poultry producer, reported its first bird flu cases in poultry on Saturday, after 50,000 birds died in Maharashtra.

In France, Europe's biggest poultry producer, the farm ministry confirmed that a duck found dead on Monday in the east of the country had H5N1. France's H5N1 case was one of several wild ducks found dead near Lyon in a region famous for the quality of its chickens.

Elsewhere, authorities in northern Spain are testing a duck found dead in lake to see if it carried H5N1, while Britain said bird flu was now more likely to reach its shores.

EUROPE ON ALERT

Germany and Austria have reported more cases of bird flu, while authorities in Bulgaria put a man in an isolation chamber and were testing him for H5N1 after two of his ducks died.

The disease has also spread to Egypt, which reported its first cases of H5N1 on Friday, while in Nigeria authorities are culling poultry and urging people not to eat sick birds after outbreaks there.

Indonesia confirmed on Saturday that a 19th person had died of bird flu, which has been reported in chickens and other domesticated fowl in most provinces of the sprawling country of 220 million people.

The H5N1 virus is known to have infected 171 people worldwide since late 2003, killing 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.

Experts have long feared the consequences of bird flu taking hold in Africa because of poor health and surveillance systems.

The U.N. AIDS chief said avian flu posed a major threat to Africa's fight against its AIDS epidemic, challenging overburdened health care systems and stretching economies.

“We are on very thin ice here,” Piot told Reuters in Dar es Salaam, where he was on an inspection mission.

“AIDS has made a mess of Africa's health care systems, and none of the factors that created the AIDS disaster have gone away. But with bird flu, we could be looking at things getting worse in a matter of months, not decades.”

Bird flu is also threatening livelihoods by slashing demand for poultry in Europe, Nigeria and parts of India.

“I have bought 200 chickens today but I know I will not be able to sell them,” chicken trader Mohammad Taqi said on Sunday at Mumbai's Ghazipur poultry market, where bird droppings and feathers litter the area and a nauseating stench fills the air.

But one customer was happy.

“I have heard about bird flu on TV but I am not bothered. I want to enjoy the low prices,” said Nanku Ram, a labourer holding a huge bird.

http://www.israel21c.com/bin/en.jsp?enScript=PrintVersion.jsp&enDispWho=Articles^l1209

Study shows Israeli elderberry extract effective against avian flu
By Nicky Blackburn January 29, 2006

At first glance, world-renowned Israeli virologist Dr. Madeleine Mumcuoglu does not seem like the sort of person you expect to come up with what could turn out to be a cure for one of humanity's biggest threats today - the avian flu.

She seems comfortable and grandmotherly, not the type you usually associate with the frontline of research into a potential pandemic. On the other hand, however, Mumcuoglu is clearly a very determined woman who has turned a lifetime of research into the health benefits of elderberry, an old folk remedy for influenza, into a clinically proven treatment for regular flu. Now, new in-vitro tests have proved that her remedy, the elderberry-based Sambucol, also appears to be effective against avian flu.

Last week, Retroscreen Virology, a leading British medical research institute associated to Queen Mary College, University of London, announced that Sambucol was at least 99% effective against the avian flu virus, H5N1, and in cell cultures significantly neutralized the infectivity of the virus.

"I think that Sambucol has a great role to play - it really can save lives," Mumcuoglu told ISRAEL21c. "To my knowledge, it's the only product that can cut the flu in half, before complications have a chance of setting in. If we do have a cure for chicken flu, this is a really positive thing for Israel."

Mumcuoglu (pronounced mum-shu-glu) was born in Algeria and immigrated to Israel in 1974. She holds a Doctorate in Virology, and studied bird flu during her Ph.D. In the 1980s, Mumcuoglu began studying the natural healing elements of the elderberry from the black elder tree (Sambucus nigra). Her interest in the plant was piqued because it had been used in medicine for many centuries. It was first referred to as a healer in the 5th century BC and received mentions in the writings of Hippocrates, Dioscurides and Plinius.

Elderberry wine was traditionally used for influenza and the ill effects of the chills, and the juice of the black elderberry has historically been an invaluable remedy. The elder has often been called the 'medicine chest" of the country people.

During Mumcuoglu's research she discovered the key active ingredient in elderberry and when she tested it against the flu virus, she found it effective. On her arrival in Israel, Mumcuoglu joined the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, and continued her research.

The result was Sambucol, a patented natural formula which contains a potent antiviral compound, AntiVirin, isolated from the black elderberry, and three flavonoids - naturally occurring plant antioxidants. In 1992, Mumcuoglu decided to commercialize her elderberry supplement, and founded Razei Bar Industries to do so.

Mumcuoglu, who is president of Razei Bar, first tested her research on patients in the Southern Israel flu epidemic of 1992/3. The results were extremely encouraging. Within 24 hours, 20% of those patients taking Sambucol had dramatic improvements in symptoms like fever, muscle aches and pains and coughing. By the second day, 73% were improved and by day three, 90%. In the untreated group, only 16% felt better after two days. The majority of that group took almost a week to begin feeling better.

In 1995, laboratory studies were carried out at Hadassah, which showed that Sambucol was effective against human, swine and avian influenza strains.

Shortly afterwards, a further randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted in Norway, where Sambucol was shown to significantly reduce the duration of flu by approximately four days. The use of rescue medication (pain relievers, etc.) was significantly less in the group receiving Sambucol than in the placebo group. The study concluded that Sambucol stimulates the healthy immune system by increasing production of inflammatory cytokines.

Today Razei Bar sells a number of different liquid anti-viral treatments including Sambucol Black Elderberry Extract, Sambucol Black Elderberry Syrup, Sambucol Immune System, and Sambucol for Kids. The company also has a number of elderberry flu remedies designed for diabetics.

At the end of last year, Retroscreen Virology in London began laboratory tests on Sambucol to discover whether the natural remedy could also be used to combat the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in dog kidney cells. And their findings last week are an encouraging sign.

While it is too soon to know if Sambucol can cure avian flu in humans, the Retroscreen Virology trial does hold out hope that it may be a possible solution if more studies support the findings. Mumcuoglu admits that clinical research into H5N1 is impossible at this stage, because there have only been 140 or so cases around the world, and the mortality rate is over 50%. Instead, the company is preparing to begin in vivo studies to look at the effect of Sambucol against the disease caused by the avian influenza virus.

If Sambucol does prove effective against H5N1, it will be a major breakthrough. Unlike many of the other remedies being touted as possible treatments to bird flu, this is a tried and tested product, already on sale in 17 countries around the world, including the US, Canada, Britain, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Israel, South Korea, and Singapore.

In the US, Sambucol has been well received and now controls about 80% of the elderberry remedy market. The liquid food supplement is distributed by Nature's Way Products and sold in most health food stores across the country.

A SPINS survey revealed that in the US three of Sambucol's products are among the top 10 out of 662 herbal formulas available for adults, while the children's remedy, Sambucol for Kids, is at the top of the list as the number one formula for kids out of 192 products in different categories.

Another advantage of Sambucol, says Mumcuoglu is that unlike the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, which is the only treatment for bird flu now available that is thought to reduce the length and severity of flu symptoms, Sambucol has no side effects. It can also be given safely to children. Tamiflu, in contrast, cannot be given to children under 12.

Recently there has also been doubt cast on the effectiveness of Tamiflu as two Vietnamese patients, including a 13-year-old girl, developed resistance to the anti-viral drug and died. A report on this was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Commenting on the report in the journal, Prof. Anne Moscona of Cornell University in New York said Tamiflu-resistant H5N1 "is now a reality".

"This frightening report should inspire us to device pandemic strategies that do not favor the development of Tamiflu-resistant strains."

The US, like many nations around the world, has stockpiled supplies of Tamiflu.

Another advantage of Sambucol is that it can treat every type of flu virus.

"Our research has shown that the antiviral effect of Sambucol is not strain-specific," says Mumcuoglu. "It was effective against all influenza viruses tested. The original formulation of Sambucol is the product we have tested in all cases - both in the laboratory and in clinical studies for the common flu. It is what was also used in the recent experiments in London against avian influenza virus thus any Sambucol already on the shelves is the same as any we would produce now."

Traditional vaccines given to prevent flu from developing are often created through guesswork, with scientists simply speculating which strain of flu is likely to hit that year. The three most likely strains are combined into a vaccine, but by the time the flu season arrives, these strains may have undergone changes, or new strains may have emerged. Despite this, Mamcuoglu insists that those at risk continue to take their flu jabs.

Mamcuoglu insists that use of Sambucol against traditional flu viruses will help reduce the annual death rate. "If you stop the flu virus at the beginning then you stop it going to the lungs, or from creating the additional complications that are normally the cause of death," she explains.

Currently about 30,000 people die of regular flu every year in the US, a figure that could rise alarmingly if avian flu becomes the pandemic experts are predicting. If Sambucol proves effective against bird flu, however, Mamcuoglu believes that figure will be much lower.

The next round of trials into Sambucol's efficacy as a treatment for bird flu are likely to be completed during the year. Mumcuoglu is ready for any upsurge in sales that are likely if the results are positive. "We have additional production facilities on standby," she says.

The company also has another interesting product in the pipeline, called ArteryCare 40 Plus. This is an antioxidant formula containing strong antioxidants from the elderberry, the pomegranate and the persimmon. It helps avoid the formation of plaque in the arteries by preventing the oxidation of LDL (the bad cholesterol), and is thought to also have anti-aging properties.

Germany

Germany deploys army in bird flu-ridden island​

www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-19 03:37:41

BERLIN, Feb. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- The German army deployed Sunday a special unit on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, where over 40 cases of the deadly virus of H5N1 have been found, to intensify the fight against bird flu.

Defense officials said that they had dispatched a 19-member unit specializing in handling decontamination to help defuse the spread of the virus.

The ABC unit has already set up their equipment and planned to start disinfecting both vehicles and people on the island, which was declared a "protected zone," according to German news agency DPA.

The sale and transport of poultry is banned for 21 days on the island, which has emerged as a major tourist destination in recent years.

Federal officials in Berlin said a mass culling of poultry on Ruegen has been underway to halt the virus from infecting domestic birds. The island is part of the east German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

The moves came after calls from state Minister for Agriculture Till Backhaus and federal Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer for every effort to be made to prevent the virus from spreading to other parts of Germany.

Backhaus said, "We are facing an extremely serious situation."

The two ministers criticized local officials for their slow response to evidence that birds on the island had been infected bythe deadly virus and failure to take actions to stop its spreading.

Firemen have also been deployed to collect the carcasses and every dead bird has been required to be picked up and sent to labsfor testing.

The public is warned not to touch any dead animals as the H5N1 virus could kill human beings.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to the island on Sunday not as the leader of the nation but as the parliamentary representative of the region which forms part of her electorate. Enditem

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-02/19/content_4201161.htm

Spain

By m.p.
Sun, 19 Feb 2006, 23:31

Analyses for the HN51 bird flu virus are being carried out on the bodies of two birds, which were found dead in La Rioja and Navarra over the weekend.

The first bird, a duck, was found near Mendillori Lake in Pamplona on Saturday. The results of the analyses of its body are expected to be completed on Monday. The Navarra government say the analyses are being carried out under the protocol established a year ago after bird flu first appeared, and which has been activated on previous occasions in the region. They believe the duck is not migratory, and belongs to a species which normally lives on the lake.

The regional government of La Rioja confirmed on Sunday that a migratory bird, which reports say could be a heron, was found dead on the banks of a river in Anguciana.

The authorities in Italy have now confirmed 16 cases of the bird flu virus there.

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_2703.shtml