Europe: Post all articles here

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STOCKHOLM (AFP) - The EU's reference laboratory in Britain has confirmed Sweden's first cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, in two wild ducks found dead last month, the Swedish Board of Agriculture revealed.

The two tufted ducks were found dead in Oskarshamn, on Sweden's southeastern coast, at the end of February.

Full article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060315/hl_afp/healthflusweden_060315163900

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COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Denmark has detected its first case of highly pathogenic H5 bird flu in a wild bird, the Danish family and consumer affairs ministry announced.
"We can confirm that the first case of bird flu has been found in Denmark," Minister for Family and Consumer Affairs Lars Barfoed told reporters.

A sample from the buzzard, found on a beach at Svinoe, south of Copenhagen on Sunday, will be sent to the EU reference laboratory in Britain to determine whether it died of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu that can infect humans.

Full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060315/hl_afp/healthfludenmark_060315144854

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BELGRADE (AFP) - Four children were placed in isolation, while 24 other people were being monitored after a suspected outbreak of bird flu in western Serbia, the government said.
"As a precaution, the children were hospitalized for continuous medical supervision," Serbia's health ministry said in a statement.

It added that another 24 people had been under "constant medical supervision" for possible symptoms of the virus in the area around the western town of Bajina Basta.

Full article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060317/hl_afp/healthfluserbia_060317200650

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COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Nine more cases of the H5 bird flu virus have been found in Denmark, according to an expert who said that it would be established over the weekend if they were of the potentially deadly H5N1 type.

Peter Bagge of the Danish Food and Veterinary Research Institute said the nine tufted ducks had been found in the marine of the town of Aeroeskoebing, on the small island of Aeroe in the south of the country.

Full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060318/hl_afp/healthfludenmark_060318165023

[Hotwater]

Russia toughening borders sanitary-quarantine control over bird flu (http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=4904429&PageNum=0)

MOSCOW, March 20 (Itar-Tass) - Russia’s Federal Service for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) has recommended to toughen sanitary-quarantine control on the border with China, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan over the bird flu disease spread threat. The service officials told Itar-Tass on Monday that Rospotrebnadzor head Gennady Onishchenko has sent a corresponding letter to the heads of the service’s regional branches and transport agencies.

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BERLIN (AFP) Bird flu reached the German capital when it was confirmed that a dead buzzard found on the balcony of an apartment block was infected with the H5N1 form of the virus.
The infected bird was found in the eastern Berlin district of Marzahn, authorities for the city state of Berlin said.

Tests were being carried out to establish whether it was the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu which has been responsible for more than 100 human deaths, mainly in Asia, since 2003.

The discovery means seven of Germany's 16 regional states have now recorded cases of the virus.

Full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060324/hl_afp/healthflugermany_060324181819

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COPENHAGEN (AFP) - Denmark has identified its 12th case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu that can infect humans, the Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research said.
A tufted duck found on March 19 in Praestoe, south of the capital, carried the highly pathogenic H5 variant of bird flu. Further analysis revealed that the duck carried the most virulent H5N1 strain.

On Friday, a swan found near Frederikssund, to the west of Copenhagen, was also confirmed to have carried H5N1.

Nine other wild ducks and a buzzard found last week on the island of Aeroe, south of Fyn and on the island of Svinoe, south of Zealand, were all determined to have been infected with the H5N1 strain.

Full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060325/hl_afp/healthfludenmark_060325111027

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PRAGUE (AFP) - The first case of bird flu in its H5 form has been detected in a dead swan in the Czech Republic, with officials suspecting that it could be the dangerous H5N1 strain of the virus.

(snip)

Bird flu has already hit 45 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa and the deadly form of the virus, H5N1, has killed around 100 people through contact with infected poultry.

Full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060327/hl_afp/healthfluczech_060327134419

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GENEVA (AFP) - Laboratory tests have confirmed the presence of the dangerous strain of H5N1 bird flu in a wild duck in Switzerland, the fourth case so far in wildfowl.
The European Union's reference laboratory in Weybridge, Britain, identified the virus in the duck, which was found near Lake Constance on the border with Germany, the Federal Veterinary Office said Friday.

Test results on 12 other birds were still pending.

Full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060331/hl_afp/healthfluswitzerlandconfirm_060331153638

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LONDON (AFP) - Britain is considering mass human burials should a bird flu pandemic break out, The Sunday Times newspaper says.
A "prudent" worst-case assessment suggested 320,000 people could die in Britain if the H5N1 virus mutated into a form contagious to humans, according to a confidential Home Office report seen by the weekly.

Titled Managing Excess Deaths in an Influenza Pandemic and dated March 22, the document reportedly says that such a large number of deaths could lead to delays of up to 17 weeks in burying or cremating victims.

It warned that "common burial" would stir up images of the mass burial pits used during the Great Plague of 1665.

But in fact it "might involve a large number of coffins buried in the same place at the same time, in such a way that allowed for individual graves to be marked".

Full article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060402/hl_afp/healthflubritain_060402032609

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PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Another two cases of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus have been confirmed in the Czech Republic, an official said Monday.
Spokesman for the state veterinary authority Josef Duben said that a reference lab in Prague found the deadly strain in two dead swans found in Hluboka nad Vltavou, 80 miles south of Prague. The tests had already been confirmed by the EU reference lab in Britain, he said.

Another four swans found in the same region tested positive for the H5 virus, and further tests will be conducted to determine whether they had the H5N1 strain, Duben said.

The Czech Republic's first case of the H5N1 virus was confirmed last month.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060410/ap_on_he_me/czech_bird_flu_1

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PRAGUE (AFP) - The Czech national veterinary office said that the national laboratory had confirmed the country's 12th case of bird flu.
The virus, in its H5 form, was found in a dead swan in the southern Czech town of Ceske Budejovice, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Prague, where most of the previous cases have been found, a statement said.

Full Article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060414/hl_afp/healthfluczechpoultry_060414101701

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A 25-year-old Dane has been transferred to Copenhagen's Royal hospital after testing positive for bird flu in a local clinic, the Danish news agency Ritzau reported today.

If confirmed, this would be the first case of bird flu in humans in the Scandinavian country.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu, its most aggressive form, has killed more than 100 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

On the basis of blood tests in the local hospital of Nykoebing, southern Denmark, the man was diagnosed with bird flu, and late yesterday transferred urgently to the Royal hospital, one of two hospitals in Denmark authorised to treat bird flu. Ritzau said it was unknown where the man may have contracted the virus.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18820553-1702,00.html?from=rss

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BUCHAREST (AFP) - At least ten new outbreaks of bird flu have been detected in Romania, the government announced after it sacked two top veterinary officials for their poor handling of the crisis
. Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur told a news conference that samples from seven farms had been sent to Britain for tests to determine whether the bird flu detected there was the deadliest strain of the virus or not.

A further 25 "possible" outbreaks were also under analysis, he said, adding: "The number of locations where the presence of the virus is confirmed is sure to increase over the next few hours, since analysis usually confirms the preliminary tests carried out at the farms."

Full Article at Link

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060517/hl_afp/healthfluromania_060517193743

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BUCHAREST, May 22

Romanian authorities Sunday confirmed the presence of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus strain in poultry in seven locations in two central Romanian counties, the Agriculture Ministry said Monday.

Romania has so far confirmed 26 outbreaks of bird flu in six counties, as well as in two districts of capital city Bucharest, one month after authorities had closed all previous virus outbreaks. There are 26 more suspected virus outbreaks.

In Bucharest, local authorities placed a second-district neighborhood of some 200 people under first-degree quarantine late Sunday, after laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the virus in poultry in districts 2 and 4. Disinfection points were set up in both sectors on Friday, and authorities finished culling birds in the quarantined area late Sunday night.

The 200 people will remain in quarantine for at least a week, officials said.

On Sunday, agriculture minister Gheorghe Flutur said authorities were considering a ban on poultry possession in cities larger than 100,000 people, especially in Bucharest, host to some two million Romanians.


Full Article:

http://www.mediafax.ro/english/articole-free/Romania-Confirms-7-Deadly-H5N1-Bird-Flu-Outbreaks--Quarantines-Area-In-Bucharest-492859-9.html

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KIEV (Reuters) - Teams of veterinarians have been sent to destroy domestic poultry in northern Ukraine after the first appearance of bird flu in the region, Interfax Ukraine news agency reported on Monday
Avian flu had previously been detected late last year in the Crimea peninsula, a major stopover point on migratory routes jutting into the Black Sea in southern Ukraine.

Interfax, quoting Ukraine's Emergencies Ministry, said 77 specialists had been sent along with police to a village in Sumy region, near the border with Russia, after cases were noted on Sunday. Plans called for 7,200 birds to be destroyed.

It said villagers had been offered compensation.

The dispatch, however, made no mention of whether the virus detected was the deadly H5N1 type as was found in Crimea. Previous instances of bird flu in Ukraine have required further checks at laboratories in western Europe.

Specialized teams of sanitary workers destroyed well over 200,000 birds after the outbreak in Crimea. No human cases were recorded.

Ukraine's authorities have said that outbreak was brought under control but have predicted further difficulties during the passage of migratory birds through the country this year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060612/wl_nm/birdflu_ukraine_dc_2

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BUDAPEST (AFP) - The deadly H5N1 bird flu strain has been confirmed for the first time in a large poultry rearing region of Hungary by a European Union laboratory, veterinary officials said here Friday.
The H5 virus, which is not highly pathogenic, had been detected by Hungarian authorities in the southeastern region of Kiskunmajsa on June 9.

But the EU's reference laboratory in Weybridge, outside London, confirmed on Friday that the virus affecting geese and ducks belonged to the H5N1 strain, Hungary's chief veterinarian Miklos Suth said.

Some 2,300 poultry have died at the poultry farm in Kiskunmajsa where H5N1 has been detected since last week.

About 500,000 other poultry have been slaughtered as a precautionary measure within a one-kilometre radius around Kiskunmajsa.

Some four million of the 40 million poultry reared in Hungary in total are bred within a 40-kilometre radius of Kiskunmajsa.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060616/hl_afp/healthfluhungary_060616202824

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GENEVA (AFP) - Switzerland will order eight million doses of a new type of "pre-pandemic" vaccine designed to tackle the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu and other related variants, the government has said.

Two unnamed vaccine makers will be approached to supply the national stock, which should be ready next year, the Federal Council announced after a regular cabinet meeting.

The vaccine is meant to provide an initial layer of protection for the Swiss population when a flu pandemic emerges, until a proper vaccine is developed within months to tackle the exact pandemic strain.

Health experts fear the H5N1 strain of bird flu could mutate into a form that is transmitted more easily between humans, marking the first stage of a global flu pandemic that could kill millions.

About 7,400 people -- one thousandth of the country's population -- could die in Switzerland during a flu pandemic, according to official estimates.

Health authorities believe about 1.85 million people could fall ill, of whom about 46,000 would be hospitalised.

Like many countries, Switzerland has also set up a stock of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu, which would help treat all of the expected pandemic cases and protect health staff.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060628/hl_afp/healthfluswitzerland_060628155318

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MADRID, Spain - Spain has recorded its first case of H5N1 bird flu, the Agriculture Ministry said Friday. The deadly strain was found in a water fowl in a marsh area outside the northern city of Vitoria.
A protective area of 2 miles was declared outside the area where the bird — known as a great crested grebe — was found, the ministry statement said.

Spanish officials said late last year, as bird flu spread to several European countries, that it was only a matter of time before the disease made it to this country, which is on the route of northern-bound migratory birds from Africa.

Preventive measures taken so far had included banning outdoor poultry farming within a 6-mile radius of marshlands where migratory birds tend to gather.

Bird flu has killed at least 131 people worldwide since it started ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, according to the WHO. Most human cases have been linked to contact with infected birds, but experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that makes it more easily transmissible among humans.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060708/ap_on_he_me/spain_bird_flu_4

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SOFIA (AFP) - Bulgaria has registered its first case in poultry of the bird flu virus, Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil has said.
He said the virus had been detected near Djebel in the south of the country in a preliminary test by a Sofia laboratory. The tests have not been confirmed by the European Union's laboratory in Weybridge, Britain.

"The Sofia laboratory detected bird flu virus in a barnyard of the village of Slantchogled," Kabil said Thursday.

He said he had ordered the destruction of all poultry and poultry products in the region.

The Sofia laboratory will give a definitive ruling within four days on whether it is the H5NI strain, which can be deadly to humans, and will send a sample to the EU laboratory.

Four cases of H5N1 were registered in swans in northern Bulgaria in February.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060720/hl_afp/healthflubulgaria_060720154204

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SOFIA (AFP) - Bulgaria's first suspected cases of bird flu in poultry were not caused by the potentially lethal H5 or H7 viruses, according to preliminary tests done in Sofia.
Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil said however that more tests would be conducted and results from a sample that was sent to the EU reference laboratory in Weybridge, Britain, were expected within 10 days.

About a thousand birds have been culled since Kabil announced on Thursday that bird flu had been found in poultry for the first time in the country.

The virus was detected on two farms in the village of Slanchogled, near Djebel in southern Bulgaria. The affected farms would receive compensation on Monday, Kabil said.

In February, four cases of the potentially deadly H5N1 bird flu virus were registered in swans in northern Bulgaria.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060721/hl_afp/healthflubulgaria_060721142325

[Deepwater]

he H5Ni has actually been confirmed, but only the Dutch papers covered it. Incredibly, they kept the zoo open to visitors.

This article has the beginning of the H5N1 before it was confirmed:

Aug 12 (Reuters) - Two young owls which died in a zoo in Rotterdam are suspected of having the H5N1 bird flu virus, the Dutch farm ministry said late on Saturday.

The Netherlands, Europe's second biggest poultry producer after France, has never reported a case of the highly pathogenic avian flu strain which is endemic in parts of Asia and has spread to birds in a number of European Union countries.0312.htm

Full Article:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MIK28AMSTERDAM,

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LONDON (Reuters) - An updated diagnostic test can simultaneously detect whether someone is suffering from an H5 strain of bird flu or seasonal influenza, its developer said on Tuesday.
The improved version eliminates the need for two tests, requires only one sample and can provide a diagnosis quickly.

"It is more efficient in that you can screen for H5 and also identify seasonal flu A and B," Dr Martin Curran, of Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) who devised the test, said in an interview.

Curran presented the improved test at the annual meeting of the HPA at the University of Warwick in central England. The HPA monitors infectious diseases in Britain.

Full Link

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060911/sc_nm/birdflu_test_dc

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BERLIN (Reuters) - An outbreak of deadly bird flu has been identified in a southern German poultry farm, a spokeswoman for Bavaria's environment ministry said on Saturday.
The spokeswoman said dead ducks from the farm in Wachenroth in Bavaria's Erlangen-Hoechstadt area had tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus, which can be lethal for people living in close contact with birds.

All 160,000 birds in the farm would be culled, the ministry spokeswoman said. The farm has been sealed off.

Local authorities had earlier said the farm contained some 44,000 birds. Officials discovered the infection after more than 400 ducks at the farm died over a short period of time.

Germany identified several cases of the deadly H5N1 strain in wild birds in Bavaria in June. A string of bird flu infections were also registered in Germany last year.

Earlier this week, Russia banned poultry imports from Italy to prevent the spread of bird flu after outbreaks there.

Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed 195 people out of 322 known cases, according to the World Health Organization. Hundreds of millions of birds have died or been slaughtered.

The vast majority of bird flu deaths have been in Asia. No deaths have yet been registered in the European Union.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070825/hl_nm/germany_birdflu_dc