June 22, 2007
Bird flu hits Czech Republic and Ghana
Highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu has been detected at a turkey farm in Usti nad Orlici district of the Pardubice region, Czech Republic, according to the European Commission.
Lab tests at the State Veterinary Institute in Jihlava and at the National Reference Laboratory in Prague turned up positive for the virus, and samples have been sent to the Community Reference Laboratory in Weybridge, UK, for confirmation.
To prevent further spread of the disease, authorities have set up a three-kilometre quarantine zone and a 10-kilometre surveillance zone around the affected area.
Officials have also instructed farmers to keep their poultry indoors and placed strict restrictions on poultry transport.
Meanwhile, a third outbreak of H5N1 bird flu has hit Aflao in Ghana, the country's agriculture ministry reported.
Ghana reported its first outbreak in the port city of Tema in early May, and its second three weeks later in Sunyani.
Some 1,100 poultry on the affected Aflao farm were culled after the owner reported unusually high bird mortality rates and later tests revealed H5N1 in some of the animals, the agriculture ministry said.
