Bird flu virus spreads through western Europe

A deadly strain of the bird flu virus has spread deeper into western Europe with the first case discovered in France, further positive tests in Germany and suspicions of at least two cases in the Netherlands. The French farm ministry said on Feb. 17 that a duck found in eastern France had tested positive for the virus, and that it was likely to be the H5N1 strain that can be transmitted to humans. France was the seventh European Union (EU) country to confirm it had been hit by the disease, which can be passed to humans by direct contact with infected birds or feces and has claimed 91 lives since 2003. The virus was also found in the bodies of dead wild swans in Hungary and Austria on Feb. 15. Wild swans that died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu have been found over the past two weeks in Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Bulgaria. In Germany, tests confirmed that 10 birds found dead on the island of Rugen in the Baltic Sea had the H5N1 strain. The agriculture minister, Horst Seehofer, warned that the outbreak would most likely spread throughout the country and urged state governments to prepare for the worst. In the Netherlands, vets are testing two dead swans for H5N1, and the government will speed up poultry vaccination plans as the disease spreads in Europe, the Dutch farm ministry said on Feb. 17. "It is not a question of 'if,' but a question of 'when' bird flu will be found in the Netherlands," said Benno Bruggink, a spokesman for the agriculture ministry. The Netherlands is Europe's second biggest poultry producer and a major world exporter, with $1.9 million of produce shipped abroad each year. "The disease is spreading very quickly in Europe, which makes us speed up the vaccination plans," said Bruggink. The EU approved more than $2.2 million in additional funding for national surveillance programs and added testing to ensure early detection of bird flu outbreaks. European veterinary experts meeting in Brussels backed plans to increase the surveillance of wild birds and enforce stricter bans on imports into the EU. An EU spokesman said the programs would run until the end of the year, and added that 60,000 wild birds and 300,000 domestic birds would be tested for bird flu in EU countries this year. Austria, Germany, Sweden and France are among countries where there is now a ban on keeping poultry outdoors, and France is also likely to step up pressure for EU-wide vaccination. As the virus continued to march west into Europe, scientists in Indonesia reported that it appeared to be becoming more potent: victims are dying more quickly and in greater numbers. Anton Apriyantono, the Indonesian Agriculture Minister, said: "This means the virus is getting more ferocious," as he announced plans to step up surveillance. The Iraqi government announced on Feb. 16 that laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus in dozens of chickens in the Missan governorate. A spokesman for the Iraqi health ministry said that thousands of birds would be killed, but that farmers would receive compensation for their losses. A 13-year-old boy from Missan suspected to have the virus died on Feb. 5. There are also fears that the flu had spread to Niger, the world's least-developed country. Niger authorities are investigating dead chickens and ducks found in the border towns of Magaria and Zinder this week, but said no cases had so far been confirmed. UN officials warned that the spread of the virus across Africa would threaten food supplies. Health authorities fear that the virus might mutate to enable human-to-human transmission and then spread swiftly around the globe. "The threat to human health will persist as long as the problem persists in animals," says Dr. Peter Horby, a public health expert with the World Health Organization in Hanoi, who works closely with the US Food and Agriculture Agency in the fight against bird flu in Vietnam. "There are other diseases that cross from animals to humans, but bird flu is the most pressing issue. It is clearly an endemic problem and a definite risk to humans."