June 19, 2006

H5N1 bird flu confirmed in Hungary's domestic birds

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in domestic poultry in Hungary for the first time, a government official said Saturday (Jun 17).

Lajos Bognar, deputy of the chief veterinarian, said the strain was confirmed by the European Union laboratory at Weybridge, UK.

Authorities took immediate precautionary measures last week when a farmer reported a sudden loss of 3,000 of his birds, Agriculture Ministry spokesman Andras Dekany said by telephone. He said authorities killed 450,000 domestic birds, primarily geese and ducks, before the EU lab confirmed the H5N1 strain.

"We have long treated our findings of the flu subtype as if we had received confirmation from Weybridge. We started destroying the flock anyway, making absolutely certain the virus would not spread," Dekany told The Associated Press.

Samples for further testing were sent to the EU reference laboratory in Weybridge last week after Hungary had detected the H5 subtype in the southern county of Bacs-Kiskun.

The Agriculture Ministry said 8.5 billion forints ($39.2 million) could be spent on the extermination of fowl in the county.

The damage to farm owners is estimated to reach 1 billion forints.

Hungary's first case of H5N1, detected in February, was found to be carried by wild birds including swans and gray geese.

Japan this week temporarily halted imports of Hungarian poultry products, including fois gras, because of bird flu concerns.