Bird flu reaches mainland, fears of worldwide pandemic

BUCHAREST - Laboratory tests showed on Saturday that the same deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu as that found in Turkey and Asia had infected ducks in Romania, confirming the virus had reached mainland Europe.

A British laboratory testing Romanian samples established that three birds found dead in the Danube delta last week contained the H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 60 people and caused the death of millions of birds in Asia since 2003.

The World Health Organization's top influenza expert, echoing previous warnings, said the virus could mutate into a form that could kill thousands or millions of people around the world and urged governments to prepare for such a pandemic.

But encouraging news came from China, where state media said a new, improved vaccine for birds had been developed, a low-cost spray that could protect them from the H5N1 strain of avian flu.

The spread of the virus in Asia has been blamed on backyard farms and open-air markets where humans and birds mingle in often unsanitary conditions, and authorities have been unable to wipe it out despite large-scale culling and vaccination.

In Turkey, the state Anatolian news agency reported that nearly 1,000 chickens had died in the east, near the Iranian border, after being transported from the west of the country. It said samples had been sent for tests for possible bird flu, but did not say where exactly the birds had been moved from.

A Turkish Health Ministry official said earlier that nine people under observation in hospital for possible bird flu had been allowed to go home as tests showed they were not infected.

Turkish officials also said the incubation period for the avian flu found on a farm in the northwest was over, and the danger to humans had passed.

The EU Commission in Brussels confirmed that the H5N1 strain found in Romanian ducks was exactly the same as that detected in Turkish birds. "The link has now been confirmed," Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said in a statement.

Kyprianou said the European Union had already banned poultry and live bird imports from Romania, so no further measures were needed. EU veterinary experts will meet on Thursday to review the situation, he added.

Terrible pandemic

Klaus Stoehr, director of the WHO influenza program, said "the virus has the potential to change and mutate and thus spark a terrible pandemic", echoing the fear of other experts that H5N1 may change into a form that spreads easily among humans.

"We don't know whether a pandemic will break out in the coming weeks, months or only in years," he told German NDR radio. "But there's no question that if such a pandemic occurs we'll be looking at hundreds of thousands or even millions of deaths worldwide."

Countries so far unaffected must assume the virus will spread further, Stoehr said. "It's not about speculating, it's about actually getting ready for an outbreak to occur, even in Europe."

In Romania, pharmacies ran out of regular flu vaccine and local media reported that worried citizens had bought up to 2 million doses of the vaccine in the past few days.

Flu vaccine protects people only against the latest strain of regular flu. Only if H5N1 mutates into a form that passes easily between humans will pharmaceutical firms be able to develop a vaccine specifically against that strain.

In Romania's southeast Danube delta area, six counties were cordoned off. Vehicles leaving the area were being disinfected at checkpoints and residents were being given antiviral drugs, officials said.

Television footage showed masked and gloved veterinarians gassing poultry and disinfecting farms in the delta village of Ceamurlia de Jos, part of a cull of more than 60,000 birds aimed at stopping the virus from spreading.

The Danube delta contains Europe's largest wetlands and is a major resting place for migratory wild birds -- the carriers of the virus -- coming from Russia, Scandinavia, Poland and Germany and heading for North Africa for winter.

Poland, responding to European Commission calls, said all poultry must be kept indoors from Monday to keep it away from migratory wild birds.

"The situation means quite a large danger for poultry in Poland, so I decided to impose some restrictions ... including a ban on keeping poultry in open spaces," Farm Minister Jerzy Pilarczyk told a news conference.

- REUTERS