|
BRUSSELS: The European Commission on Monday confirmed
the first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird-flu virus in the European
Union since mid-2006, after tests on Hungarian geese proved
positive.
European Health Commissioner
Markos Kyprianou urged all member states “to step up their
vigilance” and to reassess their risk levels following the
outbreak at a goose farm in southeastern Hungary, his spokesman
said.
An EU-approved laboratory in
Britain had confirmed that it “was indeed a case of the H5N1
strain,” the spokesman, Philip Tod, told a press conference in
Brussels.
Meanwhile, the Hungarian
authorities announced a suspected second outbreak in the southeast
of the country and said they had responded by slaughtering all 9,400
geese on the farm.
“Animals suspected of carrying
bird flu were found Friday on a goose farm in Derekegyhaza,” about
170 kilometers southeast of Budapest, the agriculture ministry said.
Samples from that farm were also
being sent to the laboratory in Weybridge, near London, which the
Commission uses to confirm such cases.
Tod stressed that in both
instances all EU rules had been carried out, including the slaughter
of infected flocks, disinfection of affected farms and the setting
up of safety zones within a 10-kilometer perimeter.
While assuring that no further
measures were necessary, Tod said fresh outbreaks could not be ruled
out.
The first bird-flu tests were
carried out at Weybridge after Hungarian authorities last week
reported the suspected outbreak among a flock of geese in Csongrad
County in the southeast of the country.
Hungarian authorities slaughtered
the original infected flock and established a three-kilometer
protection zone and 10-kilometer surveillance zone around the
infected farm.
However that did not prevent
nearby non-EU countries from taking their own measures, with
Croatia, Serbia and Russia banning Hungarian poultry exports.
It is the first incidence in the
European Union of the highly pathogenic avian influenza since August
2006, when one case occurred in a zoo in Dresden, Germany. The virus
has killed about 160 people worldwide since late 2003.
Between late 2005 and mid-2006,
13 EU nations—plus Romania which has since become a
member—uncovered cases of the H5N1 strain.
Jean-Luc Angot, deputy director
general of the World Organization for Animal Health, said in Paris
on Monday that the virus found this month in Hungary was “99.4
percent identical” to the strain that caused outbreaks across
Europe last year.
The extremely close similarity
suggests the virus holed up among birds in Hungary, enabling it to
survive after the end of the outbreak there at the end of spring, he
said.
The origin of the Hungarian
outbreak is still being investigated, but wild birds are considered
“a strong possibility” by the European Commission.
The disease situation will be
reviewed at an EU expert meeting on Friday.
--AFP
|
