May 26, 2006

Bulgaria concerned over bird flu outbreaks in Romania

Bulgarian authorities Thursday (May 25) convened an urgent meeting of a bird flu panel, worried by the numerous outbreaks of the disease in neighbouring Romania.

"The situation in Romania is very worrying," Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil told reporters. "We have taken all precautions...but we will discuss additional measures," he said, without elaborating.

Romania has detected 44 outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu since last week, and culled all domestic fowl in dozens of communities in an effort to contain the epidemic.

Bulgaria--which has a 600 kilometre long border with Romania to the north, mostly along the Danube River--has reported no cases of bird flu in domestic fowl so far.

Preventive measures such as a poultry import bans and regular disinfections at border crossings have been in force since last year's first bird flu outbreaks in Turkey and Romania. However, other precautions such as closing open-air bird markets and ordering domestic birds be kept indoors have recently been lifted.