After a series of preliminary tests revealed on Friday [19 May 2006] that
some domestic poultry in Bucharest might be carrying the H5 bird flu virus,
prompting authorities to quarantine a street in the Andronache neighborhood
of Sector 4 and restrict access to other areas in Sector 2, President
Traian Basescu got involved in managing the bird flu crisis and requested
the head of the Intelligence Services, Radu Timofte, to collect information
about an alleged illegal import of chickens that, according to Agriculture
Minister Gheorghe Flutur, might have led to the spread of the disease.
Although still in hospital, Basescu had a meeting with Timofte and urged
him to find out whether Flutur's suspicions are true, pointing out that the
rapid spread of the virus represents an issue of national security. On
Saturday [20 May 2006], the president also had a meeting with Prime
Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, Flutur, and Interior Minister Vasile
Blaga, calling on them to check all the poultry farms in the areas where
the virus hasn't yet been reported.
"The president asked the ministers to take immediate measures to prevent
the spreading of the disease and demanded disinfecting filters be
established in the counties neighboring those areas affected by the bird
flu," presidential aide Adriana Saftoiu said on Saturday [20 May 2006].
The bird flu outbreak in Bucharest created panic, despite the officials'
appeal for calm. "The virus has been confirmed in the 2nd district" of
Bucharest, where there are more than 400 households that have some 4400
chickens, Mayor Adriean Videanu said, adding that further tests will
determine whether the dead poultry had the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu
virus.
The final tests confirmed the virus yesterday [21 May 2006], and the
authorities enforced the Level 1 quarantine measures, which are meant to
isolate a 3rd of the households in sectors 2 and 4. Authorities quarantined
at least one street in an eastern part of the capital on Saturday [20 May
2006] and began culling birds and disinfecting streets in the 2 districts.
Access was restricted to 65 streets in both districts, where about 2000
residents live, Videanu said. Meanwhile, the residents were given the
antiviral drug Tamiflu.
Bucharest's chief veterinarian, Constantin Savu, said that authorities are
considering ordering a ban on poultry husbandry in the city. An estimated
40 000 domestic birds could be culled.
However, after yesterday's [21 May 2006] meeting of the National Emergency
Department for the Fight Against Bird Flu, Flutur urged calm, stressing
that the situation is being stabilized. According to Flutur, yesterday
there were 25 confirmed outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu in 6 counties, with
Brasov County leading with 16 affected localities.
"In 15 of these localities, the sanitary-veterinary experts have already
finished culling the birds and have disinfected the areas. By tonight, all
25 locations will be disinfected," said Flutur, adding that 26 other areas
are suspected of hosting the H5 virus. The minister also said the
authorities have finished culling the birds at the Dakrom poultry farm in
Codlea, which is considered to be the source of the bird flu outbreak.
"Today, we have started to cull the birds at Pati Prod (another farm in
Codlea). The experts have to incinerate about 600 000 chickens," Flutur
explained.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in Brasov County issued a temporary custody warrant
for the manager of Pati Prod, Florin Macovei. Macovei will be detained for
20 days, the same as the owner of Dakrom, Vasile Dardala, who was taken
into custody at the end of last week. The 2 businessmen are being
investigated for tax evasion and spreading of animal disease, as they sold
chickens to several supermarkets in the country despite the fact they did
not have authorization to do so.
Meanwhile, more and more people in Bucharest have reported dead birds, but
the preliminary tests did not confirm the H5 virus. In addition, none of
the 14 people brought last week to the Matei Bals Institute for Infectious
Disease were found to carry the virus, according to the Institute's
director, Doctor Adrian Streinu Cercel. "Numerous persons came to us in the
last weekend, afraid they might be infected with bird flu. They were not
sick, but the panic creates fear. In fact, they have reasons to be worried,
because the virus spreads through air," pointed out Streinu Cercel.
[Byline: Denisa Maruntoiu]
--
Joseph P. Dudley, Ph.D.
Chief Scientist
EAI Corporation
Arlington, VA 22203
<
jdudley@eaicorp.com>
******
[2]
Date: Mon 22 May 2006
From: Mary Marshall <
tropical.forestry@btinternet.com>
Source: Reuters Alertnet, 21 May 2006 [edited]
<
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L21334704.htm>
Lab tests confirm bird flu in Romania's capital
-----------------------------------------------
Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of birds infected with avian flu in
the Romanian capital for the 1st time since it was detected in poultry in
the Danube delta last October [2005], officials said on Sunday [21 May 2006].
Romania has reported more than 20 bird flu outbreaks over the past week,
mostly in the central county of Brasov, just a month after the strain was
said to have been eradicated in the Black Sea state.
Gabriel Predoi, a top official at the Animal Health Agency, said a bird flu
strain was found in samples taken from dead chickens on the outskirts of
Bucharest.
"The H5 virus was confirmed in samples from Bucharest's Sector 2," Predoi
told Reuters. "We will quarantine the area and start culling all domestic
birds."
Predoi said the samples would be sent to a reference laboratory in
Weybridge, U.K. to determine whether they contained the H5N1 strain, deadly
to humans. Results for other suspect cases in another area were not yet
available, he said.
Disinfection points were set up in both sectors on Friday [19 May 2006],
when suspicious poultry deaths occurred. Around 4400 domestic birds will be
killed in Sector 2, officials said.
Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur told reporters on Sunday [21 May 2006]
it was not clear yet what caused the recent wave of avian flu, adding that
authorities were considering whether to ban breeding of domestic fowl in
large cities.
"I do not think we have to panic. We will discuss new outbreaks with
experts from the World Health Organization, who will come to Romania,"
Flutur told Realitatea TV station.
Authorities have said about one million domestic birds might be culled to
prevent the spread of avian flu to highly populated areas, after H5N1 was
detected at a chicken farm 170 km north of Bucharest.
The European Union candidate has culled nearly half a million fowl since
discovering the 1st bird flu case in the Danube delta, Europe's largest
wetland, last October [2005]. It has not reported any cases in humans.
--
ProMED-mail
<
promed@promedmail.org>
******
[3]
Date: Mon 22 May 2006
From: ProMED-mail <
promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Nine-o'clock, Bucharest, issue 3683, 22 May 2006 [edited]
<
http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=detalii&categorie=frontpage&id=20060522-500671>
There are so many controversies surrounding the re-outburst of avian flu
that it defies explanation and, therefore, its management within the
sanitary limits available. Within the space of only a few days, scores of
foci, confirmed or only supposed, emerged across 1/3rd of the surface area
of this country, the threat of spreading including Romania's capital
itself, hence, the frequent questions about this phenomenon almost unique
in contemporary Europe. Why was it -- both the experts and the public ask
-- that once the serious foci of avian influenza were fast and definitively
closed last March 2005 (the reason for which Romania received praise from
the EU), they burst out again and in several locations concurrently? And
why is it that in those locations, the migratory birds, unanimously
acknowledged to be the carriers of the deadly virus, have not showed signs
of sickness this time around?
What favored the pathogenic agent in such places as Brasov, Fagaras, Codlea
etc., where, unlike the Danube Meadow or Delta, the environment is not
propitious for such disease? And why have prevention measures not been
enforced in all the aforementioned localities, and why have veterinary
doctors, who are 1st responsible for the health of all domestic animals and
birds, actually been the 1st to break the law?
The questions don't stop here. They are equally rooted in the fact that,
although banned after the recent avian flu crisis, the sales and, likely,
the import of live chickens carried on out of control. In the commune of
Balotesti, Vrancea County, but in other locations as well, even the local
authorities opposed the quarantine measures. Even the National Veterinary
Sanitary Administration continues to operate as an entity autonomous from
the chief coordinating factor, the Ministry of Agriculture. And since here
"autonomy" means "opposition" most often than not, it is quite clear that
such top-down measures for preventing, and consequently fighting, avian
influenza have turned into the opposite, a fact proven by none other than
the Agriculture minister himself, who, in a recent appeal to local
authorities, insisted, in comical-tragic fashion, on specifying that,
"during the crisis, the Command must stay in Bucharest."
[Byline: Mihai Iordanescu]
--
ProMED-mail
<
promed@promedmail.org>
******
[4]
Date: Mon 22 May 2006
From: ProMED-mail <
promed@promedmail.org>
Source: Nine-o'clock, Bucharest, 22 May 2006 [edited]
<
http://www.nineoclock.ro/index.php?page=detalii&categorie=homenews&id=20060521-5154>
The H5N1 strain was confirmed late on Sunday [21 May 2006] by the Weybridge
Laboratory in U.K. in the samples from Brasov County. No other information
has become available since the newspaper went to print.
25 foci have been confirmed now in 6 counties: 16 in Brasov county, one in
Covasna county, 3 in Vrancea county, 3 in Bacau county, one in Buzau
county, one in Sibiu county (in the city of Sibiu).
The number of suspected cases has decreased from 31 to 26 -- due to 5
suspected cases becoming confirmed cases -- in Bacau, Buzau and Sibiu
Counties. On Sunday [21 May 2006] morning, there were 26 suspected cases:
11 in Brasov, 2 in Buzau, 2 in Vrancea, 4 in Valcea, one in Sibiu, 2 in
Prahova, one in Alba, one in Neamt, and 2 in Bucharest [see
political/administrative map of Romania at
<
http://www.aboutromania.com/maps3.html>].
Minister Gheorghe Flutur stressed that 15 foci have been already cleared,
all the chickens having been culled, making the 1st disinfection. The
liquidated foci are in Brasov (11 total: 10 in localities and one at Drakom
farm), Covasna (1), Buzau (1), Sibiu (1). The other hotbeds where the
presence of the virus H5 was confirmed will be liquidated by Monday [22 May
2006] evening, except for the focus in Patiprod, where the action will take
several days. Nevertheless, the culling is taking place with great
difficulty. The culling has not begun at chicken farm No. 3 of Patiprod, at
Codlea, where there are 600 000 chickens. Culling was not started at
chicken farm No. 4 from the same complex, where the tests were negative.
The manager of the farm complains that the birds have started to die,
because they haven't been fed for a week, and corpses lie on the farm
floor. In response, the Codlea mayor said that equipment and teams sent to
the culling sites are insufficient.
The meeting of the Central Anti-epizootic task force on Sunday [21 May
2006] was attended also by Premier Calin Popescu Tariceanu, who wanted to
discuss with its members the handling of bird flu. The Prime Minister also
informed the members about the involvement of the other ministries in the
management of the crisis and consulted the specialists over certain
technical details. "I think that the Premier left the place optimistic,
because he saw that the situation begins to calm down, and the authorities
are doing their duty," concluded Minister Gheorghe Flutur.
--
ProMED-mail
<
promed@promedmail.org>
[The situation in Romania is a reminder of the long-known fact that HPAI
spreads by 2 main routes: on the one hand by free-roaming birds; but
certainly not less important, by uncontrolled trade and transportation of
infected domestic or captive birds, poultry products, fomites, people,
vehicles etc. Biosecurity measures should address all of them.
The 1st case of HPAI H5N1 was detected in Romania in October 2005 in ducks
within the Danube delta, Europe's largest wetland. An interactive map of
avian influenza monitoring in Europe and the Middle East, showing recorded
cases in domestic fowl, wild birds, mammals and humans, is available at
<
http://disasters.jrc.it/AvianFlu/Europe/>.
On top of the apprehension caused by the well-known potential human-health
implications of H5N1, the public and media response observed in Bucharest
might have been exacerbated by imprinted fears caused by another zoonosis,
West Nile fever, which affected Romania's capital in 1996, causing several
hundred cases and at least 17 mortalities.
The world HPAI situation will be one of the topics to be discussed during
this week's 74th General annual session of the OIE in Paris (21 - 26 May
2006), where the 165 member countries will be represented by their
respective Chief Veterinary Officers. International organizations and
animal-health experts will participate as well. Romania's official delegate
to the OIE is Dr. Gabriel Predoi. - Mod.AS]
[see also:
Avian influenza (113) - Egypt, Europe, Indonesia, Romania
20060517.1387
2005
----
Avian influenza - Eurasia (11): Romania, H5N1
20051015.3009
Avian influenza - Europe (10): Romania, ducks, susp.
20051007.2928]
.....................arn/msp/dk
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