Britain confirms first case
of bird flu in 13 years
BY MICHAEL MCDONOUGH
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Britain confirmed its
first case of bird flu since 1992, say
ing the virus that killed a parrot in
quarantine is the same deadly strain
that has plagued Asia and recently
spread to Europe.
Scientists determined the parrot, im
ported from South America, died of
the H5N1 strain that has devastated
poultry stocks and killed 61 people in
Asia over the past two years, the De
partment for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs said on Sunday.
The virus is being spread by migrat
ing wild birds and has recently been
found in birds in Russia, Tlirkey and
Romania, spurring efforts around the
globe to contain it.
While H5N1 is easily transmitted
between birds, it is hard for humans
to contract. But experts fear it could
mutate into a form of flu that is eas
ily transmitted between humans
and cause a pandemic that could
kill millions.
Debby Reynolds, DEFRA’s chief vet
erinary officer, said the parrot was like
ly infected with the virus while it was
in quarantine with birds from Taiwan.
Tests conducted on the Taiwanese
birds that had died were inconclusive,
the department said.
DEFRA said the virus most closely
matched a strain found in ducks in
China earlier this year but was not very
similar to strains discovered in Roma
nia and TUrkey. The genetic makeup of
the virus changes slightly as it spreads,
and scientists use such tests to track its
migration across the world.
On Monday, Russia’s Emergency
Situations Ministry confirmed bird flu
in another central region.
Seventy birds in the village of Yuzh
ny in the Tambov region, about 250
miles southeast of Moscow, have fall
en ill with the disease, ministry spokes
woman Veronika Smolskaya said.
Eight of the birds died and 48 were
slaughtered over the past day, the In
terfax news agency reported.
Bird flu devastated flocks in sev
eral regions in Siberia and the Urals
during the summer, and last week it
hit a village about 200 miles south
of Moscow. Preliminary tests con
firmed the poultry there had been
infected with the H5N1 strain, and
authorities culled all 3,000 birds in
the village.
On Sunday, the Croatian govern
ment promised to compensate vil
lagers and farmers whose birds
were slaughtered to prevent the
spread of bird flu. About 10,000
domestic birds have been killed in
an area near a national park where
six swans were found to have been
infected with the virus.
The European Commission on Fri
day said it was preparing a ban on all
poultry imports from the country,
while some individual European na
tions have already done so.
In related developments:
• Indonesia’s agriculture minister
said Monday the country will revise
laws that have been used to prevent
health authorities from investigating
suspected bird flu outbreaks in com
mercial poultry farms. When the dead
ly H5N1 strain first appeared in In
donesia two years ago, the country’s 11
biggest poultry producers blocked ac
cess to their farms, hampering efforts
to fight the virus. Bird flu has killed
three people in Indonesia.
• Sweden said one of four ducks
found dead in an area west of Stock
holm Friday was infected with bird flu,
but not the deadly H5N1 strain.
• The European Union said its
bird flu experts will discuss a possi
ble ban on imports of wild birds
into the 25-nation bloc on Thesday.
The EU has so far resisted calls to
ban all pet bird imports, fearing it
could create a black market that
could increase the threat of infected
birds being smuggled in.
• Indian drug maker Cipla Ltd.
said Monday that it could produce
50,000 doses of the anti-influenza
drug Tamiflu a month starting early
next year, as it pressed pharmacuti
cal company Roche of Switzerland
for a license to manufacture a
generic version of the drug.
Roche has been under growing pres
sure from governments and U.N. Sec
retary General Kofi Annan to license
generic versions of Tamiflu, which is
used in treating humans who have
bird flu.
Associated Press writer Eugene
Brcic in Zagreb, Croatia,
contributed to this report.
HBFfinW DAILY FMFRAI n
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