Europe is on high alert after Greece became the first European Union country to confirm a case of bird flu this week.
Greek Minister of Agriculture Evangelos Basiakos reported the case on a turkey farm on the Aegean Sea island of Oinouses, near the coast of Turkey, on Tuesday this week.
The European Commission said it was preparing to ban the movement of live birds and poultry meat from the region, which also includes the nearby resort island of Chios.
It was a clear indication that the disease, which has plagued South-East Asia, is continuing its rapid spread westward. Cases have also been reported in Turkey and Romania.
Authorities in Romania are monitoring poultry in six more villages in the Danube delta, amid fears that quarantine restrictions on areas already suspected of harbouring the disease may have come too late. Regional veterinary experts said a teacher from Ceamurlia de Jos, the worst affected village, had already moved to a neighbouring hamlet. Romania ordered the culling of 17 000 chickens in this village alone.
Bulgaria and Croatia are also testing birds, although as yet there is no evidence of infection.
In Italy, consumption of chicken has fallen by 30% since the crisis began, according to agricultural associations. The real figure is thought to be higher, with consumption in some areas down by 70%. Egg sales have also been hit.
At the same time, French authorities have earmarked â,¬600million for safety measures, including 14million doses of antiviral drugs, 50-million face masks for hospitals (with 150million more on the way) and 40million doses of any future vaccine. Airport controls have been stepped up and a good-practice guide has been distributed to farmers, who have been told to keep birds indoors as much as possible.
Several German states have banned open-air poultry farming, while German Minister of Health Ulla Schmidt is spending â,¬20million to develop a prototype vaccine for a bird flu ”super-virus” that spreads to humans.
In Spain, talks between health chiefs and Minister of Health Elena Salgado resulted in increased orders for vaccine doses and antivirals, from two million to up to 10-million.
British Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt told the House of Commons this week that there was ”no direct threat” to people in the United Kingdom. ”This is a bird disease. There is no reason to stop eating poultry,” she said, insisting the government was ensuring that the country was as fully prepared as possible for a pandemic flu outbreak among humans, if one occurred.
Planning in the UK is based on an estimate that about 50 000 people might die in a pandemic, four times the UK’s 12 000 flu-related deaths each winter. But the government recognises that deaths might top 700 000.
American Health Secretary Mike Leavitt, speaking in Jakarta, Indonesia, warned that ”no nation is adequately prepared for a pandemic of avian flu”, but said most were improving.
This week, UK scientists travelled to Asia to speak to experts in Vietnam, China and Hong Kong about the impact of avian flu in their countries and see whether surveillance of flu in birds and humans can be improved.
The trip, by experts from the UK Medical Research Council, is sensitive, as China was suspected of covering up the extent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) crisis in 2003, and there have been no reported human deaths from avian flu there. About 60 deaths have been reported elsewhere in South-East Asia.
Only 120 cases of bird flu in humans have been confirmed since 2003, suggesting that half of those who caught it from close proximity to birds have died. But it is unclear whether other people may have caught it without displaying serious symptoms. So far, the virus has not changed in a way that makes it easily transferable between people. — Â