The Romanian authorities slaughtered poultry and sent in doctors on Sunday after the deadly strain of bird flu was confirmed in the Danube Delta. British laboratory tests showed on Saturday that the H5N1 strain of the disease had reached mainland Europe for the first time, identifying it in three ducks found dead in the Romanian village of Ceamurlia de Jos.Experts fear the H5N1 virus, which has killed more than 60 people and has caused the death of millions of birds in Asia since 2003. Romanian Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur said the outbreak was limited to Ceamurlia and Maliuc, 40 km (25 miles) North. All 18,000 domestic birds in Ceamurlia were killed and culling of Maliuc’s less than 3,000 poultry was under way.“On a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius around Ceamurlia de Jos, the tests (for bird flu) are negative,” said Flutur. However, despite that, officials stepped up public health precautions in the country.The Danube Delta, Europe’s largest wetlands near the Black Sea, is a major way station for migratory wild birds heading from Russia, Scandinavia, Poland and Germany towards warmer winter climes in North Africa. Despite the Romanian assurances, Britain’s Chief medical officer said on Sunday his country was braced for a pandemic of bird flu that could result in at least 50,000 deaths there.In Romania, six southeastern counties have been cordoned off and vehicles leaving them are being disinfected. Poultry and pigs have been put indoors, transport of live animals from the counties banned and fairs selling animals closed across the country, officials said.Bulgaria has stepped up border controls and increased surveillance over poultry farms along the Danube and Black Sea, Chief veterinarian Zheko Baichev said. The H5N1 strain that first emerged in Hong Kong in 1997, has now spread to South Korea, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Turkey and Romania. —ReutersTurkish vet says chicken tests do not bird fluAccording to a Turkish veterinarian, early tests on 1,000 chickens that died in the Agri did not point to bird flu. But officials have stopped poultry transportation in the province where the chickens died.Since poultry in Agri province is not developed, chickens are brought from northwestern Turkey, where bird flu has already already been detected. Turkey confirmed an outbreak of the disease on a farm in northwestern region, triggering a virtually pan-European ban on imports of all Turkish live birds and feathers.
