Malawi bird flu tests negative
03/01/2006 20:30  - (SA)  

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Johannesburg - The initial results of bird flu tests conducted in South Africa on samples of birds from Malawi are negative, said a researcher on Tuesday.

Celia Abolnik, senior researcher at Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute outside Pretoria, said: "The initial tests are negative for bird flu."

Thousands of birds dropped dead in central Malawi about two weeks ago, with health officials urging people not to eat the birds because of fears for avian influenza, which had already claimed 70 lives in Asia since 2003.

Initial tests 'negative'

Malawian veterinary expert Wilfred Lipita last week said a "heavy downpour of rains" caused the deaths, but that blood and tissue samples of the birds were sent to South Africa as a "formality to rule out avian influenza as the cause of the deaths".

Abolnik said initial tests turned up negative and that the final results, which would be known by the end of the week, would probably also be negative.

She said: "If it was the H5N1 strain we would known it early on."

World health bodies had warned that once the virus achieved the ability to transmit from human to human, millions of people could die.

Malawi has not reported any cases of avian influenza.

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