Bird Flu reaches France for first time

PARIS - Bird flu spread to France for the first time with the discovery on Friday that a dead duck found in eastern France almost certainly had the deadly H5N1 strain which is transmissible to humans.

Amid reports the disease was spreading in fowl in Europe and the Middle East, the World Health Organisation confirmed that an Iraqi who died in January was the country's second human bird flu victim.

Officials said the disease had infected chickens in Egypt for the first time, while Azerbaijan and Slovenia reported more cases of H5N1.

Speaking after an emergency meeting at the prime minister's office, French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau said several ducks had been found dead in a swampy area.

"One of them was analysed and the tests showed the presence of bird flu, the H5 virus, and it's 90 per cent sure it is the H5N1 virus, the most dangerous," he told journalists.

Scientists would need a further 30 hours "to be 100 per cent sure that it is this virus," he added. "What has been found already shows this is a dangerous virus." There were fears of further outbreaks in birds in Germany and Hungary, and tests were being carried out on suspect birds from Greece.

Bosnia reported its first suspected case of avian influenza in two swans on Friday and further tests will show whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain.

The H5N1 virus remains mainly a disease of poultry, but it has infected 169 people, killing at least 91 in Asia and the Middle East since 2003.

The WHO has warned that the virus could spark a pandemic that could kill millions of people around the world if it mutates into a form that spreads easily between humans.

An Iraqi man who died last month was confirmed as the country's second human case of H5N1 infection, the WHO said, but tests on 14 other people proved negative.

In Bucharest, WHO and local experts warned that Romania, where nearly half the population live in rural areas with poor water and sewerage, faced a definite risk that the disease could claim its first human victims in Europe.

Romania has found bird flu in 31 villages since first detecting the virus in October, but the domestic birds were culled swiftly and no human cases have been reported so far.

"The situation is critical. So far we can say we have been lucky that we had no cases of bird flu in humans," said Adrian Streinu-Cercel, head of Romania's main virus laboratory.

"It's not enough to force people to wash their hands, you have to give them the means to do it," he added.

"The likelihood that some kids in Romania come in contact and play with sick or dead birds is not zero," said WHO expert Guenael Rodier.

As fears of the disease's spread to humans grew, a top WHO official said that while the world had spent more than US$3 billion to stockpile anti-virals against bird flu, it was not investing enough to develop a vaccine.

Klaus Stohr, WHO special adviser on influenza pandemic vaccine development, said that while preliminary results from several clinical trials looked "promising", much more work was needed.

But an Australian company, CSL Ltd., reported that small doses of a vaccine against H5N1 had achieved "encouraging" preliminary results in a trial involving healthy adults.

The findings were released as Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said the number of bird flu cases among humans in his country had risen this year.

"Bird flu cases in humans (in Indonesia) are increasing in 2006, but the outbreak in poultry is decreasing. It indicates that the virus is spreading fast," he said.

Indonesia has had 18 confirmed deaths from bird flu and eight other confirmed sufferers have survived.

As a senior WHO official in Egypt confirmed that H5N1 had been found in birds in three areas of the country, Germany said it was likely to report more cases in the coming days.

Bird flu arrived in Germany on Tuesday when two wild swans were found to be infected with H5N1.

"It is to be expected that more positive finds will be made," Agriculture Minister Horst Seehofer said.

New cases of H5N1 in Russia have forced authorities to cull more than half a million chickens in the south of the country, the World Animal Health Organisation said.

In Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo opened his chicken farm for bird flu testing to encourage farmers to be transparent about any suspected outbreak of the disease.

- REUTERS