Fears that H5N1 bird flu has reached Europe intensified this week with apparent outbreaks in Turkey and Romania.
It will not be clear for several days whether the outbreaks are avian influenza, and if so, whether it is the same H5N1 strain that has spread across east Asia and killed at least 60 people. But scientists caution that Europe鈥檚 free-range poultry could be putting the continent at risk.
A Romanian village in the Danube delta, which is a stopover for migratory birds from Asia, was quarantined after 36 birds died. Initial blood tests suggest the cause was bird flu, though this has not been confirmed.
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A scientist from the UK鈥檚 Veterinary Laboratories Agency at Weybridge in Surrey is travelling to Romania to investigate, says VLA spokesman Matt Conway.
There have been outbreaks of bird flu across six provinces in central Russia, and in Kazakhstan, since July 2005. Several were confirmed as H5N1.
Village closed off
Meanwhile a turkey farmer in north-western Turkey reported last week that 1700 of his birds had died, and Turkey鈥檚 Anatolia news agency said the cause was an H5 flu virus. A 3-kilometre radius around the village has been closed off and all birds and stray dogs within it are being killed.
鈥淲e expect a sample from Turkey today,鈥� Conway told 快猫短视频. It will take 48 hours to confirm if the virus is the 鈥淶 genotype鈥� H5N1 circulating in Asia.
Virologists fear that strain could mutate into a form that can pass from human to human easily, causing a lethal pandemic.
Controversy has surrounded the question of whether wild birds can carry H5N1 to domestic poultry. No healthy, migrating wild bird has yet been found to be carrying and shedding the virus.
Move poultry indoors
But domestic ducks can shed it without showing symptoms. Albert Osterhaus of the University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands told 快猫短视频 that wild birds closely related to domestic ducks, such as the mallard, should be able to carry it.
Millions of poultry were killed in the Netherlands to control another bird flu, H7N7, in 2003. Dozens of people were infected with the virus and one died. That outbreak, says Osterhaus, was caused by wild ducks that carried a virus genetically very similar to the outbreak strain, and shared a pond with free-range poultry.
Partly at Osterhaus鈥檚 urging, the Netherlands ordered farmers to move the country鈥檚 five million outdoor poultry indoors in August for fear of infection by migratory birds from Russia. But the European Union decided against this, and a month later the Dutch relented and let the birds back outside, though with temporary roofing over poultry yards on migration routes.
Bird Flu 鈥� Learn more about the flu pandemic that could kill millions in our continually updated special report.
