October 18, 2005

Romania works with Moldova, Ukraine against bird flu

Moldova and Ukraine have agreed to work with Romania in stopping the spread of bird flu, even as lab tests confirmed that the three dead birds found in Romania's Danube Delta had the pathogenic H5N1 strain.

At a meeting held on Oct 17 in Suceava, north of Romania, Romanian Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur noted that the bird flu disease could not be brought under control without close international cooperation.

As such, Romanian scientists would soon be going to Odessa, a city on Ukraine's Black Sea coast, to help Ukrainian experts identify bird flu cases, Flutur said.

On a separate occasion, Flutur met with Moldovan Agricultural Minister Anatolie Gorodenco on Oct 16 in Romania's Galati, where the two ministers agreed that both countries should take joint actions to prevent the disease's spread.