April 24, 2006

Tests find H5 bird flu in two dead swans in France

France is prolonging anti-bird flu measures in a zone hit by the virus after two more dead swans tested positive for the virus' H5 subtype, the Agriculture Ministry said Friday (Apr 21).

The test results were confirmed Thursday night, and further examinations were expected to determine whether the birds were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain.

The swans were found this week in Saint-Paul-de-Varax in the Ain region of southeast France, some 45 kilometres from the city of Lyon.

The Ain is the epicentre of French efforts to combat bird flu, recording 63 of the 64 cases of H5N1 found so far this year in tests on more than 14,000 dead wild birds in France. The other case was in the Bouches-du-Rhone region further south.

Measures to prevent and monitor the spread of bird flu that were already in place in the Ain are being adapted following the two new H5 cases, and they will remain in place for at least a month, a ministry statement said.

"The recent discovery of two infected swans show that it is necessary to remain vigilant and to maintain bio-safety measures in the infected zones," the statement said.

In neighbouring Germany, authorities have indefinitely extended an order to keep all domestic poultry indoors in an attempt to protect against the spread of the H5N1 bird flu, the agriculture minister said Friday.

Germany confirmed its first case of H5N1 bird flu in domestic fowl earlier this month at a farm in Saxony. Before that, it had been identified in some 200 wild birds across the country, many of them concentrated on the northern island of Ruegen.