January 10, 2006

 

Some 2,000 birds dead in Trinidad, cause unknown

 

 

The health minister of this Caribbean country promised an investigation Monday after 2,000 chickens died at several farms in eastern Trinidad, but said he doubted the cause was bird flu.

 

The birds have been dying since last Thursday in half a dozen large farms around Cumuto, 25 miles east of the capital, Port-of-Spain, said a farmer who did not want to be identified because he was worried of losing contracts with customers.

 

It was unknown if the birds died from the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu that has already killed more than 70 people in East Asia since 2003.

 

"I don't want to alarm the country," said Trinidad's Health Minister John Rahael. "An immediate investigation will be launched to determine the cause of death of the birds, but I don't think it's bird flu."

 

An Associated Press reporter saw the dozens of dead chickens scattered around the fields. Farmers said that they had buried hundreds of dead chickens in nearby fields.

 

Farmers were trying to round up sick chickens to keep them in quarantine away from the rest of their flocks. Those chickens have swollen stomachs, watery eyes, a lack of appetite and grayish blue skin, farmers said.

 

Agriculture Minister Jarett Narine did not return calls for comment, and it was not immediately possible to determine when authorities would be able to identify what killed the birds.

 

In October, a mild strain of bird flu that poses no threat to humans was discovered in chickens in Colombia. Colombian authorities carried out 18,000 tests on chickens at more than 200 farms across the Andean nation and said they haven't detected any new cases.

 

Experts worry that the lethal H5N1 bird flu virus sweeping through bird flocks in Asia and pockets of eastern Europe could mutate into a human flu that could kill millions.