February 14, 2006

Belgium testing dead swan for bird flu

Belgian health authorities said Monday, Feb 13, they were investigating a suspected case of bird flu after a dead swan was discovered outside a town near the Dutch border.

Pascal Houbaert, spokesman for the Belgian food safety agency FAVV, said experts were following normal procedures in testing the dead bird, which was found Sunday floating in a river near the town of Lommel, 106 kilometres northeast of Brussels by a group of walkers.

The suspected case comes after the European Union's executive office said Sunday that experts confirmed a case of H5 bird flu virus in Slovenia, on the border with Austria.

Slovene authorities insist they only detected H5 so far, and are waiting for a European Union reference laboratory in Weybridge, England, to check if it's the deadly H5N1 strain.

Scientists are concerned that the virus may mutate and become easily transmittable between humans.

Last week EU experts also confirmed that dead swans found in Italy and Greece were also infected by the deadly H5N1 strain.

The EU confirmed Saturday that the deaths of wild swans in Bulgaria were also due to the H5N1 strain. This was followed by a confirmation on Monday that another wild goose from Greece has been tested positive, making it the fourth case in the country so far.

Belgium, like other EU states has applied new prevention measures including added surveillance of wild bird nesting areas and wetlands and rules preventing farmers from putting poultry outdoors.