Austria:Wild birds.

[ukcz]

Austria confronts bird flu virus

By Joe Remick

Styria takes action;
Don?t panic, says health minsitry.

Graz/Vienna. Four swans and a great white heron have been found dead near Graz and are being tested for the deadly H1N5 flu virus. Earlier, a dead swan found close to the Austrian border, near Maribor in Slovenia, tested positive for the H1N5 virus which can be fatal to humans. A dead swan found in Carinthia is also being tested at a European Union lab in Britain.


Styria has imposed a series of measures aimed at stopping the spread of the virus. A ten kilometre observation zone has been set up along the border with Slovenia. All poultry are to be kept indoors until further notice. There is also an immediate ban on the hunting of all wild fowl such as ducks, quail and pheasants.


The member of the Styrian state assembly responsible for farm issues, Johann Seitinger, is urging people not to panic. Similar advice is coming from the health ministry. To date, no humans in Europe have contracted bird flu from wild fowl. Fatal cases reported in Asia last year were attributed to poor hygiene and to the close proximity in which some people live with chickens.

13.02.2006

http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4082&Alias=wzo&cob=219035

[DB]

Austria says dead swans have H5N1 bird flu virus

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14515409.htm

VIENNA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The two swans found dead in the south of Austria were infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, an official of Austria's government Agency for Food Safety said on Tuesday.


Asked if the agency had detected the H5N1 strain of the virus, the official, Josef Koefer, told journalists at a news conference held by the country's Health Ministry: "Yes."


Samples of the dead swans have been sent to the EU's reference lab in Weybridge, England, for confirmation of being infected with H5N1, the ministry had said earlier.

[HenryN]

EU Says Bird Flu Found in Austria, More Tests Need to Be Done

EU Says Bird Flu Found in Austria, More Tests Need to Be Done

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...o&refer=europe#

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union said avian influenza has been found in two swans in Austria and tests were being conducted to determine if it is the deadly H5N1 strain.
The European Commission, in a statement sent by e-mail today, said Austria was applying ``precautionary measures.'' Austria becomes the fourth EU nation to be hit by bird flu, after Greece, Italy and Slovenia.
``The Austrian authorities have informed the European Commission this afternoon of a confirmed case of the H5 avian influenza virus in two dead swans found in the region of Stiria, near to the city of Graz,'' the commission said. ``Further tests will now be carried out.''
A wild swan tested positive for an H5 subtype of avian influenza in Slovenia, the European Commission said yesterday, a day after Italy and Greece confirmed the lethal H5N1 virus in swans. The commission is the EU's executive branch.
The virus has killed birds in more than 20 countries and infected at least 166 people, killing 88 of them.

To contact the reporter for this story:Kevin Costelloe in Brussels at kcostelloe@bloomberg.net.Last Updated: February 14, 2006 11:10 EST

[DB]

Avian flu found in wild birds in Austria

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14515409.htm

VIENNA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The two swans found dead in the south of Austria were infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, an official of Austria's government Agency for Food Safety said on Tuesday.


Asked if the agency had detected the H5N1 strain of the virus, the official, Josef Koefer, told journalists at a news conference held by the country's Health Ministry: "Yes."


Samples of the dead swans have been sent to the EU's reference lab in Weybridge, England, for confirmation of being infected with H5N1, the ministry had said earlier.

[ukcz]

Re: Austria says dead swans have H5N1 bird flu virus

Pay attention people, I 'broke' this news here yesterday! It was in a thread I called 'Austria' ;-)

[Mellie]

Austria Confirms H5N1 Bird Flu

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=59195

Austria Confirms H5N1 Bird Flu

Politics: 14 February 2006, Tuesday.

The two swans, which were discovered in a Southern Austrian region, were infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain, an official at the government Agency for Health and Food Safety said on Tuesday.

This is the first case of bird flu in Austria.

Samples from the swans have been sent to the EU's reference lab in Weybridge for confirmation. The results are expected next week.

"On the basis of the tests available to us, we are of the opinion that it is H5N1," Josef Koefer, head of the agency's veterinary department, told a news conference held by the Health Ministry.

Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, and Turkey are among the countries that have discovered fowls infected with the strain, deadly to humans, on their territory.

[Bruce]

Austria finds fifth case of H5N1 in duck 18 Feb

Austria finds fifth case of H5N1 in duck
18 Feb 2006 11:55:40 GMT

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18775355.htm

Source: Reuters
VIENNA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Austria has detected the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in a duck, the health ministry said shortly after announcing the country's first four cases in swans. "One of three ducks taken to a (local) laboratory has tested positive and therefore is strongly suspected of having the H5N1 infection," the ministry said in a statement late on Friday. Results for the other two ducks were due on Monday. Austria says a case is strongly suspected when it detects H5N1 but the findings must be confirmed at the European Union's reference laboratory in Weybridge, England. The dead ducks were found in the southern province of Styria, like the four swans, but outside a protection zone established after the discovery of the first two cases. In the protection zone, poultry must be kept indoors. "We are well equipped (to handle bird flu) and have everything under control. We can clearly signal to all Austrians that no danger to people exists," Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat told ORF public radio on Saturday. "It's absolutely necessary to keep a close eye on this problem, take it very seriously, and coordinate measures against it across the EU and beyond. But there is no reason for panic."

[Bruce]

Austria finds fifth case of H5N1 in duck

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18775355.htm

Austria finds fifth case of H5N1 in duck
18 Feb 2006 11:55:40 GMT

Source: Reuters
VIENNA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Austria has detected the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in a duck, the health ministry said shortly after announcing the country's first four cases in swans. "One of three ducks taken to a (local) laboratory has tested positive and therefore is strongly suspected of having the H5N1 infection," the ministry said in a statement late on Friday. Results for the other two ducks were due on Monday. Austria says a case is strongly suspected when it detects H5N1 but the findings must be confirmed at the European Union's reference laboratory in Weybridge, England. The dead ducks were found in the southern province of Styria, like the four swans, but outside a protection zone established after the discovery of the first two cases. In the protection zone, poultry must be kept indoors. "We are well equipped (to handle bird flu) and have everything under control. We can clearly signal to all Austrians that no danger to people exists," Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat told ORF public radio on Saturday. "It's absolutely necessary to keep a close eye on this problem, take it very seriously, and coordinate measures against it across the EU and beyond. But there is no reason for panic."

[Lizbeth]

Austria: New Bird Flu Cases Found

| WORLD | EU

News Bird Flu Cases Found in Austria

4 March 2006 | 18:30 | FOCUS News Agency

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=135&newsid=83852&ch=0&datte=2006-03-04

Vienna. New cases of bird flu were registered in Austria, AP reported. Five dead birds were found in the western part of the country. All cases are in wild birds. Tests are being made at the moment to determine whether the virus is of the dangerous H5N1 strain.

So far bird flu cases have been registered in France, Greece, Italy, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Criatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Russia, Ukraine.

[Lizbeth]

Re: News Bird Flu Cases Found in Austria

Germany-Iran-Bird flu

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-16/0603040716144137.htm

The number of registered bird flu cases has risen to 14 in the southern German region of Lake Constance (Bodensee) where the Iranian national football team plans to hold their upcoming World Cup training camp, DPA reported Saturday.

Five more wild birds were discovered with the bird flu virus in the Austrian city of Bregenz which is less than 30 kilometers away from the German town of Friedrichshafen where the Iranian team will hold its World Cup preparatory training camp in late May.

The Iranian national football squad is scheduled to stay at the luxurious 'Krone Hotel' which is located outside Friedrichshafen in Schnetzenhausen.

Surrounded by Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Lake Constance has been hit by the bird flu as dozens of ducks, birds and swans on the lake have in the meantime succumbed to the bird flu.

Authorities have set up exclusion zones in a three-kilometer radius along the beaches.

Last week German health officials discovered a dead wild duck with the deadly H5N1/Asia type along the beaches of the lake near the city of Ueberlingen which is some 30 kilometers away from Friedrichshafen.

German health experts anticipate a worsening of the bird flu situation in the Lake Constance region as up to 250,000 migratory and water birds will fly over the lake to head to western and central Europe from southern Europe and northern Africa.

[Sally Furniss]

Re: Austria:Wild birds.

H5N1 Cases in Austria Up To 29

World in Brief: 4 March 2006, Saturday.

Six new cases of the potentially deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu were found in Austria, boosting their total number to 29 in the country. "H5N1 was detected in three ducks, a seagull and a grebe in the western province of Vorarlberg. It is still to be seen whether it is the deadly strain," the province's environment and agriculture representative, Erich Schwaerzler, announced. Samples have been sent to the EU reference laboratory in Weybridge, England for confirmation. The sixth case was detected in a wild duck near Graz in the southern province of Styria, an area where all of the confirmed H5N1 cases in Austria were found so far.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=60001

[Mellie]

Beauty of Lake Constance and the birds

Lake Constance, beautiful area. I haven't been back there since I was a young adult, but I remember clearly birdwatching with Trudi and Rolf, morning noon and night for almost a month while visiting.

http://www.chrisimages.net/JPG%20Archive/Science%20Images/Lake%20Constance/4010_Lake_Constance_2004-04-22.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/image/9977229

http://www.inf.uni-konstanz.de/lifeddm05/hoernle.html

The abundance of migratory birds there is profound, as it is here in northern California along our Pacific flyway.