December 27, 2007

Germany confirms third case of bird flu

German authorities in the northeast state of Bradenburg confirmed on Wednesday the third case of a chicken tested positive of bird flu.

The virus was detected on a small farm in the town of Blumenthal in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, according to a police spokesman from Neuruppin, north of Berlin.

All 31 birds in the village were culled. It was the third case in 10 days in Brandenburg, a rural state that surrounds Berlin and is on the border with Poland.

There were eight cases of the H5N1 bird flu virus in Poland this month.

Officials in Brandenburg placed a protection zone with a radius of three kilometer and imposed a surveillance zone of 10-km radius around the area. There are 150,000 birds in the 10-km zone.

Earlier this month, two chickens in the Oberhavel district further west tested positive for H5N1. A week ago, a separate case of bird flu was confirmed in the town of Bensdorf in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, bringing the number of bird flu cases in the state to 24.

German authorities culled tens of thousands of birds after the virus was found at two farms in Bavaria early this year.