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Bird flu hits German poultry industry hard amid consumer panic
http://www.todayonline.com/articles/104477.asp
Bird flu hits German poultry industry hard amid consumer panic
Friday • March 3, 2006
Germany's poultry-producing industry said it had already lost more than 140 million euros as consumers were scared off by the bird flu crisis which has sparked panic in the most populous EU country.
Animal welfare groups reported hundreds of cats being abandoned after the virus which has been found in 140 wild birds was discovered in a cat in northern Germany, producing the first known case of infection in a mammal in Europe.
The highly pathogenic form of H5N1 bird flu which can be deadly to humans has been identified in five of the country's 16 regional states.
The first case of H5N1 near Berlin was announced on Friday, after a dead coot found several kilometres (miles) from the capital tested positive.
Further tests were being done to determine if it had the most dangerous form of the virus.
Although German poultry farms have so far escaped infection, consumers are deserting chicken, duck and turkey in their droves, with demand reduced by up to 20 percent since the first cases of the current outbreak of bird flu were discovered in the country in mid-February.
"We have made a loss of 143 million euros (172 million dollars), according to our initial calculations," Thomas Janning, a spokesman for the Central Federation of the German Poultry Industry, told ARD public television.
Janning said farmers would need financial assistance from the government and the European Union.
But he said farmers were opposed to the idea of vaccinating poultry flocks because the vaccines currently available did not give complete protection from infection and could, in some circumstances, "hide" the virus in affected flocks.
Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer admitted the situation was "worrying" but called for consumers not to panic.
After meeting international experts on Thursday, he said more funding would be dedicated to research into a fully effective vaccine.
"Research into the causes of the propagation and the possible vaccination strategies will be increased," Seehofer said.
"Eventually we are going to need an alternative to slaughtering and keeping poultry indoors."
Poultry has already been shut indoors for several weeks in a bid to prevent it becoming infected, but new measures were to go into effect on Saturday banning anyone unconnected with the breeding of poultry from entering farms.
Meanwhile, cat owners have been told to keep their pets indoors after the dead cat was found to be infected on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, where the virus first emerged in Germany.
As a result, German authorities have ordered pet owners in all bird flu-hit regions to keep cats indoors and dogs on leashes.
There was some good news, as around 250 soldiers sent to Ruegen to pick up dead birds were set to return to their base on the mainland on Saturday.
The situation on the island was "considerably less tense", local councillor Kerstin Kassner said. — AFP
Bird flu hits German poultry industry hard amid consumer panic
Friday • March 3, 2006
Germany's poultry-producing industry said it had already lost more than 140 million euros as consumers were scared off by the bird flu crisis which has sparked panic in the most populous EU country.
Animal welfare groups reported hundreds of cats being abandoned after the virus which has been found in 140 wild birds was discovered in a cat in northern Germany, producing the first known case of infection in a mammal in Europe.
The highly pathogenic form of H5N1 bird flu which can be deadly to humans has been identified in five of the country's 16 regional states.
The first case of H5N1 near Berlin was announced on Friday, after a dead coot found several kilometres (miles) from the capital tested positive.
Further tests were being done to determine if it had the most dangerous form of the virus.
Although German poultry farms have so far escaped infection, consumers are deserting chicken, duck and turkey in their droves, with demand reduced by up to 20 percent since the first cases of the current outbreak of bird flu were discovered in the country in mid-February.
"We have made a loss of 143 million euros (172 million dollars), according to our initial calculations," Thomas Janning, a spokesman for the Central Federation of the German Poultry Industry, told ARD public television.
Janning said farmers would need financial assistance from the government and the European Union.
But he said farmers were opposed to the idea of vaccinating poultry flocks because the vaccines currently available did not give complete protection from infection and could, in some circumstances, "hide" the virus in affected flocks.
Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer admitted the situation was "worrying" but called for consumers not to panic.
After meeting international experts on Thursday, he said more funding would be dedicated to research into a fully effective vaccine.
"Research into the causes of the propagation and the possible vaccination strategies will be increased," Seehofer said.
"Eventually we are going to need an alternative to slaughtering and keeping poultry indoors."
Poultry has already been shut indoors for several weeks in a bid to prevent it becoming infected, but new measures were to go into effect on Saturday banning anyone unconnected with the breeding of poultry from entering farms.
Meanwhile, cat owners have been told to keep their pets indoors after the dead cat was found to be infected on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, where the virus first emerged in Germany.
As a result, German authorities have ordered pet owners in all bird flu-hit regions to keep cats indoors and dogs on leashes.
There was some good news, as around 250 soldiers sent to Ruegen to pick up dead birds were set to return to their base on the mainland on Saturday.
The situation on the island was "considerably less tense", local councillor Kerstin Kassner said. — AFP