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Bird flu found in Bavaria
28/02/2006 13:51 - (SA)
Munich - The H5N1 type of bird flu has reached the southern German state of Bavaria for the first time with outbreaks in wild birds in two different areas, officials said on Tuesday.
The birds would be tested further to establish whether they had the highly pathogenic form of H5N1 which can be fatal to humans, the Bavarian consumer ministry said.
The tests are being carried out by Germany's principal veterinary laboratory, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute.
The deadly strain has been confirmed in three of Germany's 16 regional states.
It first broke out in northern Germany, on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, before spreading to the mainland of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and the neighbouring state of Schleswig-Holstein.
The first outbreak in the south was at Lake Constance in Baden-Wuerttemberg.
Brandenburg, the eastern state which surrounds Berlin, has confirmed H5N1, but tests have not yet shown whether it was the deadly strain.
Farm poultry has been shut indoors in Germany in a bid to prevent it spreading to commercially reared birds.
The highly pathogenic form of the virus has been responsible for 93 deaths since 2003, mostly in Asia.
- AFP
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