Bird flu threat spreads to Romania, Turkey

PARIS, Monday (AFP) Europe awaited confirmation Sunday of its first outbreak of the deadly bird flu strain as Romania and Turkey scrambled to cull infected birds and prevent the virus spreading to people.

Anti-flu vaccines were being administered in Romania to thousands of people amid fears that the avian flu detected there may be the deadly strain that has killed over 60 in southeast Asia.

Romanian authorities said that on the basis of preliminary tests, they feared that three ducks in the southeastern Tulcea region had been infected with the H5N1 strain transmissible to humans.

"The analysis by Romanian experts shows that it is the virus H5N1. It is quite possible that this form of the virus is less virulent than the Asian one," said health official Rodica Costina. However final confirmation of Europe's first contamination by the virus was expected within two weeks from a laboratory in Britain.

Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu said that no human cases had been detected so far in the eastern European country. Authorities said that migratory birds from Russia, stopping over at the Danube delta, had carried the virus into the country.

The H5N1 avian flu virus has mainly been found in 10 southeast Asian countries and has so far infected 112 people, of whom around 60 have died, according to the World Health Organisation.

Scientists have warned that millions of people around the world could die if the virus crosses with human flu strains to become a lethal and highly contagious new disease.As Romania grappled with its first outbreak, officials in Turkey also announced that some 2,000 poultry had been slaughtered on a farm in northwestern Balikesir province after avian flu was detected there.

The Anatolia news agency reported that officials in the northwestern town of Kiziksa, at the centre of the outbreak, had imposed a three-kilometre (two-mile) quarantine zone and a further 2,500 turkeys as well as pigeons and stray dogs will be slaughtered.

Samples from the infected animals are being tested at a laboratory in the western city of Bornova.Agriculture Minister Mehdi Eker assured the country late Saturday that "everything is under control".

"Unfortunately we have been confronted with bird flu but everything is under control," he said.

Regional officials have said the disease probably came to Turkey from migratory birds attracted to a nature reserve near the quarantined farm.

In Romania 3,400 people living in the Danube delta region have been vaccinated for flu and 125,000 are expected to be vaccinated in the coming days, Nicolaescu said Sunday.

Romanian President Calin Tariceanu on Sunday authorized the spending of two million euros (2.4 million dollars) on vaccines and measures to stop the spread of bird flu.

Romania does not have a specific vaccine for avian flu. However this anti-flu vaccine is important as it helps to enhance immunity," health ministry spokeswoman Oana Grigore told AFP.

Agriculture minister Gheorge Flutur said Sunday no further cases of bird flu had been detected in the Danube delta during the past 24 hours.