Brussels, 06/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 6 March, the French authorities took various supplementary measures after the presence of the H5N1 virus had been confirmed on a dead swan found on 25 February between the étang de Berre and the Camargue in the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône (south-east). Precautionary measures (the setting up of protection and surveillance zones) were also taken on Sunday 5 March by the Polish authorities following the discovery of a dead swan showing signs of an infection corresponding to the H5 sub-category of avian flu virus in the town of Torun to the north-west of Warsaw. Samples have been sent for further analysis to the Community reference laboratory in Weybridge, UK. The laboratory has now confirmed that two wild swans found dead in Sweden had been infected by the H5N1 virus of avian influenza.
According to Hans Seitinger, who is responsible for veterinary services in the province of Styria in southern Austria, two or three cats still alive have been tested positive for the H5N1 virus. Four cats had been found in an animal refuge in Graz where an employee had brought in a sick bird about two weeks ago, thus contaminating different animals (this history had been reported by the Austrian Ministry for Health during the press conference after ministerial work in Vienna on 24 February). The Austrian authorities informed the Commission that the cats concerned have been placed in quarantine.
Furthermore, some thirty WHO experts began, in Geneva on Monday, a three-day meeting during which they will prepare measures (control of travellers, quarantine, etc.), that should be applied at international level in the event of an outbreak of pandemic flu. The experts are mainly from the disease control centres in Atlanta (USA) and Stockholm (Sweden).