May 29, 2006

Romania to set up national bird flu centre

Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu on Saturday (May 27) ordered the creation of a national centre to coordinate the handling of bird flu as the number of outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain continued to climb.

The centre will be called the National Centre to Coordinate Bird Flu and will be run by specialists from the finance, interior, environment, health and transportation ministries, and public health authorities, Tariceanu said after meeting with experts.

On Friday, the Romanian government imposed tight restrictions on poultry farmers in an effort to contain bird flu as the H5N1 virus continued to spread in villages in central and southern parts of the country.

The government has banned the transport of live birds and ordered police to fine farmers who fail to keep their birds in their yards, said government spokeswoman Oana Marinescu. Authorities will also inspect all large poultry farms to ensure strict bio-security measures are being enforced, she added.

Romania had its first cases in October and the virus spread slowly, infecting farm birds in dozens of villages. The country had appeared to have won the battle with the virus in early May with no new infections, but on May 12 the virus was confirmed for the first time in two large scale industrial farms in the central city Codlea.

Over 75 outbreaks followed, as the farms illegally sold live poultry to small farmers in nearby areas and spread the virus. Most of the outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu were confirmed near Codlea, but some occurred on the edges of Bucharest.

Twenty people, including the Codlea farms' owners and a local veterinarian are being investigated by prosecutors for spreading animal diseases.