February 16, 2006

France to strengthen measures against bird flu

President Jacques Chirac Wednesday Feb 15 asked the Cabinet to "immediately strengthen" measures used to protect France's poultry population, a government spokesman said.

The order from Chirac came as Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin prepared to hold a meeting of ministers later in the day about the deadly H5N1 flu virus.

"It is essential to immediately strengthen measures taken to reinforce our stocks (of poultry) and prevent the risks of pandemic," Chirac said during a Cabinet meeting, in comments relayed by government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope.

National food safety agency AFSSA recommended Tuesday the government expand across all of France an order affecting 58 regions that fowls be taken indoors. This move reduces the risk the fowl come in contact with migrating birds which could carry the disease.

Chirac stressed France should help battle the spread of bird flu outside its borders, and asked the government to provide financial help and health and veterinary support to African nations and international organizations working to halt the disease in Africa, Cope said.

Elsewhere in Europe, three dead swans found Wednesday on Poland's Baltic Sea coast were undergoing tests for bird flu.

In Italy, tests showed that two more wild swans in the southern regions of the country had died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, raising the number of cases in the country to eight.

In Africa, authorities in Nigeria have killed more than 140,000 birds in an effort to contain Africa's first known bird flu outbreak, according to a regional official in the west African country.