February 13, 2006

 

Greece steps up precautions against bird flu

 

 

On Friday, Feb 10, Greek authorities intensified precautions in areas around the country's second-largest city where three migratory swans tested positive for an H5 strain of bird flu Thursday, officials said.

 

"State authorities are on a high state of preparedness," Agriculture Minister Evangelos Bassiakos said.

 

Samples from the dead swans--found near the northern city of Thessaloniki--were sent Thursday to the European Union reference laboratory in Weybridge, England, to determine whether the birds had the lethal H5N1 strain.

 

Results are expected within the next week, although an Agriculture Ministry official said an answer could be available as early as Saturday.

 

"I believe it will be out tomorrow," Vasso Zafeiropoulou, who is responsible for monitoring bird flu at the ministry, told The AP. "I think (Weybridge) has given priority to this."

 

Greece has detected no cases of the H5N1 strain among birds or humans, although Health Minister Nikitas Kaklamanis has said an eventual outbreak among birds is inevitable.

 

Authorities in Thessaloniki, some 515 kilometres north of Athens, set up 10-kilometre monitoring zones Friday around the spots where two of the swans were found but have not imposed a quarantine, deputy Thessaloniki prefect Yiannis Bikos said.

 

"No poultry is allowed to leave the area unless it is checked first by veterinarian services," Bikos said. "We are also inspecting poultry people keep at home."

 

The third spot, some 70 kilometres south of Thessaloniki in the Pieria prefecture, is not being monitored, as the swan was found by a fisherman almost three kilometres out to sea Jan 29, Pieria prefect Giorgos Papastergiou said.

 

"We do not need to take such measures," he said. "Our veterinarian officials disinfected the boat and the port area," he said. "They are also carrying out inspections to check that all poultry kept at home is confined to coops."

 

Papastergiou said all major poultry farms in the area were far from the sea.

 

Hunting has been banned in all three areas until Feb 28, when the legal hunting season ends.

 

Before the H5 strain was detected Thursday, Greek authorities had instructed poultry farmers to keep their birds indoors or in coops, and banned the sale of live birds in street markets.

 

Greek authorities have tested some 3,500 samples from wild birds and farm poultry for bird flu since last October.