Germany, France raise bird flu risk assessment level

9 July, 2007:

Germany has raised its risk assessment level for bird flu after it was reported that 38 new cases of the deadly H5N1 strain were discovered in the country’s east.

France also reported new cases and raised its own alert.

The Friedrich Löffler Institute, Germany’s top state veterinary laboratory, raised the risk level after more wild birds had tested positive for H5N1 in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia.

The regional authorities in Sangerhausen in Saxony-Anhalt reported that 38 dead birds found on the shores of an artificial lake near the town of Kelbra had all tested positive.

Saxony-Anhalt is the fourth of Germany’s 16 states to report cases of H5N1 bird flu since June 2007, when the disease killed six wild birds in the southern city of Nuremberg in Bavaria.

The Friedrich Löffler Institute suggested the disease could have crossed the border from the Czech side where it has infected turkey and chicken farms.

In Germany, the new outbreak of bird flu has so far has been restricted to swans, geese and other wild birds and has not affected poultry farms.

Germany had battled a widespread bird flu epidemic in 2006, when the epidemic broke out on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen and spread to six states, but did not affect humans.

In neighboring France, which is Europe’s biggest poultry producer, authorities stepped up surveillance after tests on three dead swans confirmed an H5N1 outbreak. This is France’s second outbreak of the deadly strain of bird flu in 17 months.

France’s first outbreak of H5N1 in February 2006 was detected in 62 dead birds in central France and spread to a farm near the town of Versailleux, where hundreds of turkeys were slaughtered. It was also the first outbreak of the virulent strain in the European Union.

In the Netherlands, the authorities ordered all poultry to be kept inside. They announced the measure after what they called the discovery of a bird flu case “not far from the Netherlands.”

While the bird flu virus is highly contagious among poultry and can spread to an entire flock, humans do not get infected easily.

A total of 191 people worldwide have died of bird flu, according to the World Health Organisation.

Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand top the list of the countries most-affected by bird flu.