Bird flu confirmed in Croatia
2005-10-26 14:22
Zagreb - Dead swans found in a Croatian nature park were infected with the lethal H5N1 bird flu strain, the agriculture ministry said on Wednesday after receiving test results from a British laboratory.
The laboratory in Weybridge, which tested samples from six swans that had already tested positive for H5 subtype of bird flu last Friday - Croatia's first bird flu case - confirmed it was the H5N1 strain, ministry spokesperson Mladen Pavic said.
"We have already taken measures to contain the disease," he said.
The test results were confirmed by the European Commission in Brussels.
Suspected
Following the announcement of the suspected case over the weekend, the European Commission on Monday issued a precautionary ban on imports of live poultry, wild birds and feathers from that Balkan country. "That ban remains in force," said EU spokesperson Philip Tod.
Croatia also has stopped exporting live poultry.
The six dead swans were found in the nature park of Zdenci last week and experts later found 13 more dead swans that were believed to have belonged to the same flock in a nearby fish pond.
Two of those 13 also tested positive for the H5 subtype, but their samples have yet to be examined to determine whether it was the H5N1 strain.
Croatia disinfected and quarantined the region around the sites and all domestic poultry there were slaughtered and incinerated.
The ministry said none of the 17 000 domestic poultry culled earlier this week had tested positive for bird flu. Negative results also came for hundreds of dead birds turned in over the past months.
Comply
The ministry warned farmers across the country to comply with the order to keep their poultry indoors.
The H5N1 strain has been confirmed in birds in Romania, Turkey and Russia as it moves west. It has decimated poultry flocks in Asia in the past two years and killed more than 60 people.
Croatian experts on Tuesday shot down a sick swan in the Zdenci park they suspected of having bird flu. It was tagged, showing that it was at Hungary's Balaton Lake on September 9, Pavic said, adding that Hungarian experts had been informed.
Hungary has not recorded a bird flu case yet.
Croatia is a major migratory route for birds, and about 1 500 migratory swans arrived in eastern Croatia a few days ago.
International experts are closely watching for H5N1 for fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted between people and spark a human flu pandemic.
- AP