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 your independent student newspaper IN BRIEF — Wal-Mart battles critics for consumers' hearts SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced more afford able health care for some of its work ers Monday in the latest shot in a bat tle with critics for the hearts of consumers. The move by the world’s largest retailer comes as the crucial holiday sales season approaches. Analysts say Wal-Mart needs to add about $250 million a day in sales during the holiday season to meet earnings targets and cannot afford to lose ground to an increasingly united front of opponents who want con sumers to shun the discounter. 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