January 25, 2007

Hungarian laboratory tests confirms H5N1 in domestic fowl

Hungarian laboratory tests confirmed Wednesday (Jan 24) that the domestic fowl suspected to have died over the weekend because of bird flu carried a highly pathogenic strain of the virus, the Ministry of Agriculture said.

"The laboratory has detected the highly pathogenic H5 virus, which, based on the tests so far, belongs to the N1 strain," the ministry said in a release.

Hungary said Tuesday that it located a possible outbreak of bird flu in domestic geese in Csongrad county, in southern Hungary, bordering Serbia and Romania.

Further tests will be carried out in the European Union's UK reference laboratory in Weybridge to confirm that the virus isolated in Hungary belongs to the N1 strain, the ministry added. The Hungarian reference laboratory will send the samples to the UK Thursday.

Hungary has officially informed the EU authorities of the test results.

Veterinary experts from the EU will discuss Friday what safety measures to impose on Hungary following its reported outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus.