December 30, 2005

Romania confirms bird flu in more villages

New cases of H5N1 bird flu were confirmed in seven south-eastern Romanian villages, officials said Thursday.

A UK laboratory confirmed the H5N1 virus that has previously infected poultry in other south-east villages and the Danube Delta had spread to the new locations, said Gabriel Predoi, who heads the national animal health agency.

Romanian authorities had expected the result after previously narrowing the virus to an H5-subtype of bird flu, and have already culled domestic fowl in the villages, he said.

"It would be highly unlikely that we have several strains of the (bird flu) virus at the same time, so we assumed it would be H5N1," Predoi said by telephone.

He added authorities expect samples from another two villages where an H5 subtype of bird flu was detected to similarly test positive for H5N1.

The H5N1 variant of bird flu is being tracked worldwide out of fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans.

Birds in Turkey, Romania, Russia and Croatia recently tested positive for H5N1, but no human cases have been detected in Europe.