European experts scrambled on Wednesday to hammer out a response to a fast-developing bird-flu threat, as the lethal H5N1 strain spread into Germany, the latest country to be hit by the virus in days.
The European Union health experts, holding two days of talks in Brussels, were expected to agree to speeded-up procedures to clamp down on any outbreaks, while studying the option of slaughtering poultry should any contract bird flu.
The European outbreaks of H5N1 have so far been restricted to migrating wild swans, but experts fear it is only a question of time before the virus transfers to chickens and other birds in the human food chain.
The H5N1 strain has killed at least 90 people — almost half those who catch it — mostly in eastern Asia, but also in Turkey and northern Iraq.
The avian virus, which was first reported on Europe’s south-eastern flanks at the start of January, has re-erupted with a vengeance in recent days, with new outbreaks almost daily in a string of EU countries.
In Germany on Wednesday, health authorities set up the now-standard 10km surveillance zone around the spot where the dead wild swans were found on the island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea. A tighter 3km protection area will also be set up.
German officials said tests have confirmed the H5N1 virus, but added that samples were sent to an EU-approved laboratory in Weybridge, England, with results expected on Thursday or Friday.
Also on Wednesday in Greece, where the virus has been detected in dead swans, two elderly people who buried a dead chicken with their bare hands and are showing flu symptoms were admitted to hospital as a precautionary measure.
Cases of H5N1 were confirmed in Greece and Italy at the weekend, and in Austria on Tuesday.
EU newcomer state Slovenia is also investigating a suspected case found near its border with Austria, as is Croatia. Further east, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine have also reported H5N1 cases.
The Italian press reported on Wednesday that two swans that died in southern Italy had tested positive for the H5N1 form, bringing to eight the number of birds to have died of the virus in Italy. The swans were found in Puglia, one of three regions with Calabria and Sicily, where the first six cases of H5N1 were discovered.
The discoveries have been made further south than would have been expected, but bird experts say the extremely cold winter weather may have forced the swans off their usual migratory paths.
”We have absolutely no control over the introduction of the virus by migratory birds that are about to start returning from Africa to Siberia, Scandinavia and Greenland. It is unavoidable,” French food-safety agency panellist Jean Hars said.
Also further north, Danish and Swedish authorities said they have ordered all poultry and tame birds to be kept indoors in a bid to prevent the spread of the deadly strain of bird flu rapidly approaching their borders.
Until now though the 25-nation EU — the third-biggest exporter of poultry in the world after Brazil and the United States — has said it is satisfied that the measures taken are sufficient.
But Brussels is closely monitoring the situation and if poultry should become infected, it may call for the destruction of all birds and eggs on smallholdings or farms, said the EU’s spokesman on health and consumer matters.
In addition, the European Commission has proposed speeding up the process of clamping down on new outbreaks, by making the arrangements automatic rather than decided on a case-by-case basis. — Sapa-AFP