Brussels, 15/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 15 and 16 February, the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health is to examine Community measures to be taken in order to avoid the spread of the highly pathogenic virus (H5N1) of bird flu, which has come to light among wild birds in five Member States of the EU (Germany and Austria since 14 February, Italy, Greece and Slovenia since 11 and 12 February). The veterinary experts of the EU are to agree, on 16 February, on measures to be taken should the virus start to affect farmed poultry within the EU, as well as wild birds. The planned decision provides, amongst other things, for the destruction of all poultry and eggs of a holding which reports contaminated poultry. If signs of the disease appear in neighbouring farms, which will be closely monitored by veterinary surgeons, destruction measures will also be decided on for these. On 15 February, the veterinary committee decided to suspend all imports of untreated feathers until 31 July 2006, in order to reduce the risks of the disease spreading. The EU has already banned imports of untreated feathers from Turkey and six neighbouring countries (Iran, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Syria) and hopes to extend these restrictions to other third countries. The EU experts also approved the national monitoring programmes for bird flu. The EU budget will contribute 1.964 million EUR (or 50% of the total cost) towards the screening tests to be carried out in the Member States under these programmes, from 1 February to 31 December 2006.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 virus of the bird flu was detected in Austria and Germany on 14 February among wild birds, thus extending the list of EU countries affected by the disease. Both of these countries have implemented precaution measures already taken by the first three Member States to be hit by the bird flu (Greece, Italy and Slovenia): around the areas in which bird flu has been detected, the creation of a protection zone of a minimum radius of 3 km (keeping poultry shut in, disinfecting the entrances and exits to farms, banning the transport of poultry, fresh poultry meat and eggs, bans on poultry fairs and on hunting wild birds, exhibitions or other gatherings) and of a monitoring zone of a minimum radius of 10 km (disinfection of entrances and exits, checks on movements of poultry and other captive birds together with their eggs, a ban on fairs, hunting and movements of poultry and other captive birds for the first 15 days following the creation of the zone). Many Member States are actively continuing their analyses. This was true of Belgium on Wednesday, further to the discovery of dead wild birds in a park in the north of the country. 12 dead swans in Jutland and two other regions of Denmark have been sent to Aarhus for analysis. Three swans which were found dead on the shores of the Baltic near Gdansk in Poland were also submitted for tests on Wednesday. Here is the situation in the countries of the EU so far hit by the bird flu virus. Germany: on 15 February, the Commission confirmed that two wild swans found dead on the German island of Rügen, in the Baltic Sea, were carriers of the H5N1 virus of bird flu. Samples were sent for additional tests to the reference laboratory of the EU in Weybridge, in the United Kingdom. Since then, Germany has been applying the precaution measures implemented in Italy, Greece, Slovenia and Austria, where cases of H5 or H5N1 have been discovered
Austria: The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus was detected on 14 February on two swans found dead near Graz, in the Land of Styria (southern Austria). Greece: In this country, where the H5N1 virus was identified on 11 February in the region of Salonika, the H5 group virus was identified on two more dead swans in the north of the country. Italy: The H5N1 virus in its highly pathogenic form was identified during the evening of 14 February on two more swans in southern Italy, bringing to eight the total number of dead birds with the avian flu virus. Both swans were found in the Puglia region, one of the three Italian regions with Calabria and Sicily, where the first six cases of bird flu were identified. Slovenia: A virus of the H5 group was detected on a dead bird and the death of five other birds is considered suspect. Precautionary measures have been set in place. Hungary: Analyses carried out on the bodies of 11 dead wild swans found frozen on the Danube in the south of Hungary have confirmed the presence of hemaglutinin H5 in at least three cases. Samples were sent to Weybridge to verify whether it was really a case of the avian influenza H5N1 virus. The Commission decided on Wednesday evening to apply the same precautionary measures to Hungary as those set in place for Austria, Italy, Germany, etc. Furthermore, in Romania (EU candidate country), a new outbreak of H5N1 was identified on 14 February on dead poultry near Constant (south-east). Three new suspected cases were discovered in recent days in the same region, bringing to 31 the total number of bird flu cases in Romania. The virus was also discovered on wild birds in Bulgaria, another candidate country, for which an export ban already exists due to the presence of Newcastle disease. The Commission was, on Wednesday evening, to decide whether to extend this ban to live poultry from Bulgarian territory and to eggs and meat for certain regions.
Several other EU countries have taken precautionary measures against the virus: the Danish, Swedish (and Norwegian) authorities ordered, on 15 February, the confinement of poultry within farms after the virus H5N1 was discovered in Germany; - Belgium decided on 14 February to step up protection measures. From 1 March, farmers located in sensitive areas are to keep their poultry inside. Poultry may go outside but must be fed inside. Belgium had taken poultry confinement measures in November which were relaxed in December; - in the Czech Republic, on 14 February, the central committee on infections called on poultry farmers to confine their stock; - France, the EU's leading poultry exporter, decided on 15 February to generalise confinement where possible.
Furthermore, in Croatia, where two outbreaks of the H5N1 virus had been detected in the autumn, eight swans were found dead in urban areas, including the capital Zagreb, the authorities announced on 14 February. On the African continent, the H5N1 virus may have reached Niger, the border country of Nigeria where it was identified last week, sounding the alarm among FAO specialists. While Benin, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal are taking active measures to combat the virus, the representative of the UN secretary general for Western Africa, Ahmedou Ould Abdallahg, stressed the vulnerability of Western Africa as a whole due to insufficient infrastructure, especially health infrastructure. In Iran, the H5 strain of virus was detected on 135 wild swans found dead in the north-west, the authorities of the country announced on 14 February.