Romania Finds Bird Flu Cases outside Danube Delta
Date: 13-Dec-05
Country: ROMANIA
Bird flu has been found in birds in 14 villages in and around the Danube delta, Europe's largest wetlands which lie on a major migratory route for wild birds.
Four outbreaks have been confirmed as the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, the most recent showing the virus appears to be edging west towards more populated areas. H5N1 is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia where it has killed 70 people.
"We detected the H5 type in several hens and turkeys from a small Gypsy (Roma) community, one kilometre from the village of Braesti (in the county of Buzau)," director of the Animal Health and Diagnosis Institute Nicolae Stefan told Reuters.
Braesti is about 130 km (80 miles) west of the Danube delta and about 150 km northeast of the capital Bucharest.
"The H5 type of virus was also confirmed in the village of Padina," Stefan added. On Sunday, the official said five new suspected cases of avian flu in domestic birds had been discovered in Padina in the same county of Buzau.
The official said samples from birds would be sent to a laboratory in Britain to see whether it was H5N1. He also said authorities culled all the birds from the small Roma community as a precautionary move against the disease.
Romania has no capabilities to test for H5N1.
Also on Monday, the country's chief veterinarian Ion Agafitei told Reuters that veterinarians discovered three suspect bird flu cases in hens in the village of Tataru, in the Braila country which borders the delta.
H5N1 remains hard for people to catch, but there are fears it could mutate into a form which passes easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die. There have been no cases of human infection outside of Asia.