Bird flu news - France and Germany

H5N1 bird flu found in second German state 24/02/2006 - 09:01:28
Deadly H5N1 bird flu has been found in wild birds in a second German state,
authorities said today.
Two wild ducks found in the north-western state of Schleswig-Holstein tested
positive for the strain, according to the state agriculture ministry.
H5N1 was first positively identified in Germany last week in the state of
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which neighbours Schleswig-Holstein to the
east. Since then, more than 100 wild birds have been found to be infected.
A domestic duck from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania that was suspected of
having bird flu, however, tested negative for H5N1 on yesterday.
Scientists fear H5N1 could mutate into a form easily passed between humans
and spark a human flu pandemic.
In view of that risk, German health officials decided yesterday to stock up
on Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug believed to counter the symptoms of bird flu
in humans.
Officials meeting in Berlin agreed to acquire enough of the drug, which was
developed by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, for 20 percent of the
population
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H5 bird flu virus reported on French turkey farm 24/02/2006 - 08:08:27
The H5 bird flu virus turned up on a turkey farm in south-eastern France,
but it was not immediately clear whether it was the deadly strain, France's
agriculture minister said today.
Dominique Bussereau said more tests were needed to determine if the case
involved the H5N1 strain. If confirmed, it would be the first time the
disease had spread to poultry stocks in France - the EU's largest poultry
producer.
Yesterday, authorities sealed off a farm with more than 11,000 turkeys in
the south-eastern Ain region, the same area where France's first two cases
of the deadly virus - in two wild ducks - were confirmed.
"The suspicion that we had yesterday, which brought us to first cull the
animals and then destroy them, was unfortunately confirmed this morning,"
Bussereau told France-2 television.

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