Avian flu confirmed in Europe

European scientists have confirmed overnight that the bird flu strain found in Romania is the same deadly H5N1 strain that has killed dozens of people in Southeast Asia and was detected earlier in the week in Turkey.  The identification of the H5N1 virus without question was made by EU scientists in Britain and Romania.  

A spokesman for the British Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs said, “The results are that it is H5N1 but further laboratory results are required in order to confirm the origin of the virus and the relationship of that with Turkey.”  

Tests were also being carried out on three wild swans found dead in the Danube Delta.  

The H5N1 virus, which has killed some 60 people in Southeast Asia since 2003 and whose presence in Romania was confirmed Saturday, is believed to have been carried by birds on their migration to Africa.  

The European Commission said the avian influenza virus “is currently an animal health problem affecting birds” and epidemiologists warned that the virus could mutate and hitch a ride with the common influenza virus to cause a global pandemic in which millions could die.  

The Commission’s executive added that, “the reported cases of the virus infecting humans in Asia seem to result from close contact with birds under circumstances which are not commonly found in Europe.”  

The EU’s general affairs council is scheduled to meet in Luxembourg on Tuesday, and EU Health Ministers in Britain on Thursday to discuss the EU’s influenza pandemic preparedness.  

European Health Commissioner Markos Kypriano said “appropriate measures” had already been adopted by the 25-nation European Union, including a ban on imports of live birds and poultry meat from Turkey and Romania, both countries where the strain has been identified.  

He confirmed that EU measures also required countries to prevent contact between domestic fowl and migratory birds in areas such as wetlands.  

Future steps were likely to include an agreement to build up anti-viral stocks and ensure that at-risk populations are vaccinated against common influenza to reduce the risk that the flu could become a human vector for the lethal H5N1 strain.  

Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Spain that the EU was ready to take “more drastic and radical measures.”  “We think the greatest caution and greatest prudence is the best policy,” said Mr Barroso said.  

EU veterinary experts said on Friday that for now, avian flu “does not represent a risk to public health” and that there was no reason to ban activities such as bird watching or hunting that brought people into contact with wild birds.

Report by John Alwyn-Jones