Brussels, 10/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - Following the announcement of a suspected outbreak of avian flu in Romania on 7 October, and Turkey on 9 October, the Turkish and Romanian authorities and the European Commission have taken a series of measures.
Situation in Romania
In the evening of Friday 7 October, the Commission services were informed of a suspected avian flu (AI) outbreak in Romania in a backyard flock of 53 chickens/hens and 47 ducks located in the municipality of Ceamurlia-de-Jos in the Danube Delta region, about 100 km from the border with Bulgaria. In this flock 40 ducks and 1 chicken have died, while the other poultry (mainly chickens/hens) had no clinical signs of disease. All other poultry in the farm have already been killed and carcasses destroyed. Samples have been taken from 3 ducks and 2 chickens. The ducks blood samples resulted positive for antibodies against AI virus, while the 2 chicken samples were negative. These findings alone do not lead to the confirmation of AI infection (including Highly Pathogenic AI virus H5N1, that is the virus strain circulating in Asia) argues the Commission, because the finding of antibodies in ducks cannot be considered as a rare event and could be due to prior infection with Low Pathogenic AI, while ducks death could be due to diseases other than AI. Samples from the dead ducks are also being tested for the virus and the results will be available on Wednesday. The Romanian authorities have culled all poultry on the farm where the ducks died and in several other backyard/family type farms in the surrounding area and have checked samples from poultry and dead wild swans. An EU expert team of Jorgen Westergaard, former highly experienced Commission official (Deputy HoU in SANCO E2), Ruth Manvell, from the Community Reference Laboratory for AI, Weybridge, UK; and Guus Koch, from the National Reference Laboratory for AI in the NL, arrived in Bucharest on 10 October.
Situation in Turkey
On Sunday 9 October the European Commission's services were informed of an outbreak of AI in an open-air turkey farm with 1800 turkeys, 1700 of which died after that the first clinical signs were detected on 1 October. All remaining birds in the farm have been killed and all carcasses destroyed. Disinfection has been applied. The origin of the outbreak is unknown. The farm is located in the Region of Balikesir, in the north-western part of Anatolia. Laboratory tests (HI, ELISA and virus isolation on embryonated eggs) have resulted positive for the avian flu virus but the exact strain is not yet known, nor is it known if the strain is of high or low pathogenic avian influenza. The Turkish authorities will probably send samples to the CRL, Weybridge (UK) on 10 October and the results will be known within 24/48 hours from arrival of samples in the laboratory. Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou decided to ban all imports of live birds and feathers from Turkey on 10 October into the EU. Imports from Turkey of all other poultry products, with the exception of heat treated meat which kills the AI virus, are already banned.
In parallel to these EU measures, Commissioner Kyprianou is working closely with the Member States to review national action plans for coping with flu epidemics. The Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health will be meeting next week with the WHO to examine the situation and test the preparedness of national action plans through a series of simulations.