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France braces for bird flu
18/02/2006 08:53 - (SA)
Paris - France, Europe's top poultry producer, braced for a possible bird flu outbreak after tests on Friday showed that a wild duck found dead in a marsh was probably carrying the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Initial tests on the bird, found in the central-eastern Ain department on Monday, revealed that it was carrying the H5 strain of bird flu, officials said.
There were "strong suspicions" that the bird was infected with the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of the virus, said agriculture minister Dominique Bussereau.
Further tests were to be carried out in a laboratory in the northwestern Brittany region to identify the virus's exact strain, with the results due late on Friday or early on Saturday, the French food safety agency AFSSA told AFP.
If confirmed, it would be the first case of H5N1 bird flu in the country, which is western Europe's main crossroads for migratory birds, potential carriers of the virus.
"There is no reason to panic, to be afraid," Bussereau told reporters. "This simply shows that we are in a state of vigilance, and that we react as soon as something happens, in line with the principle of precaution."
So far, the H5N1 virus - which in its highly pathogenic form can be fatal to humans - has been detected within Europe in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Romania, Slovenia, Ukraine and the European part of Russia.
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