Bird Flu Appears In Bosnia

[DB]

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle...9AF03AB20.html

Bird Flu Appears In Hungary, Bosnia
<TABLE style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN-RIGHT: 5px" cellSpacing=0 width=220><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption>A sanitary worker collects wild birds that died of avian flu on the Caspian Sea shore, 40 km from the capital, Baku</TD></TR><TR><TD class=caption>(epa)</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>20 February 2006 -- The bird-flu virus continues to spread among wild bird populations in Europe.


Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said today that laboratory tests indicate the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in two more dead swans. Last week, Hungarian officials said the H5N1 strain had been found in three dead swans.


Bosnian officials have confirmed that four swans discovered on 17 February were infected with the bird-flu virus, but it wasn't clear if it was the deadly H5N1 strain.

The head of the Sarajevo veterinary laboratory, Abdulah Gagic, said the findings should not cause alarm.

"I want to emphasize that from the expert's point of view there is still no need for panic,? he said. ?I think that all the measures that are being taken by state and local offices in the field will be sufficient and that the disease will be localized to the area where it was discovered."

Romania's veterinary health agency yesterday confirmed more outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry in two villages. The German tour operator TUI said about 8,000 Scandinavian tourists cancelled holidays to Romanian resorts after news of the bird flu outbreaks was reported.

Millions of birds and around 90 humans have died from the H5N1 strain since it was discovered in Asia about three years ago. Humans can become infected through very close contact with sick birds ? though transmissions are relatively rare and officials have urged their citizens not to panic.

(Reuters, AP, AFP)

[Theresa42]

Bosnia

Bosnia confirms first case of birdflu
20 Feb 2006 15:35:47 GMT

Source: Reuters

SARAJEVO, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Bosnia reported its first case of bird flu in two swans on Monday but said further tests at a British laboratory would be needed to determine whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.

"It is H5," veterinary office head Jozo Bagaric said, adding samples had already been sent to the EU reference laboratory in Weybridge, England. Results were expected by the week's end.

He said bird flu was confirmed in two out of four swans that were culled at Malo Plivsko Jezero lake near the western Bosnian town of Jajce on Friday.

More than a dozen swans at the lake were culled at the weekend and land within a radius of three kilometres (two miles) was cordoned off.

Authorities disinfected the area and the lake whose water is used for drinking in Jajce, Bagaric told a news conference. He said that some 4,420 chicken from nearby households will be culled on Tuesday.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Dragan Doko said that farmers will get compensation from the state.

Bosnia, situated in the Western Balkans, is on one of the paths for migratory birds from central and northern Europe flying south.

Last week it banned hunting of wild fowl, ordered all poultry to be kept indoors and banned imports of live birds and poultry products from Slovenia, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria after they reported first cases of bird flu.

It had banned imports from 17 countries before, including Croatia which it borders on the north, west and south.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20296606.htm

[Theresa42]

Bosnia to cull poultry

babelfished from French:

Aviary influenza in Bosnia: demolition of 4.500 poultries
Le lundi 20 f?vrier 2006
Agence France-Presse
SARAJEVO

The Bosnian authorities announced Monday to have ordered the demolition of 4.500 poultries in the area of Jajce (center) where the H5 virus of the aviary influenza was recently detected on two dead found swans.

"Most probably, we will begin Tuesday the poultry demolition" in twelve villages located in a radius of three kilometers around the lake Plivsko, where the dead swans were found, with the press the director of the Bosnian veterinary Institute declared, Jozo Bagaric.

In the whole of Bosnia, the poultries must from now on be maintained locked up, it underlined.

After a first positive test carried out at the last weekend, new tests confirmed Monday the presence of the H5 virus, specified Mr. Bagaric without however being able to say if it acts of the most serious form of the disease.

Samples were sent to the laboratory of Weybridge (Great Britain) to determine if it acts of virus H5N1, the most pathogenic form of the virus, has it says. The results will be known the next week.

The two swans had been killed on February 12 after passers by had announced an unusual attitude of the birds.

http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20060220/CPACTUALITES/602201468/5165/CPACTUALITES