Health Articles : Infections : Bird Flu
Bird Flu Virus : Bird Flu In Europe
Bird Flu And CanadaRisk of bird flu for many a Canadians is quite slow. Although it is very important to know how one can minimize the risk of getting infected through ..... The birds were found on the island of Ruegen in the Baltic Sea, off Germany. Austria has also established its first cases of bird flu, in two dead swans. Sweden and Denmark have prepared poultry to be kept indoors as a precaution. The United Nations food agency has advocated governments in Western Europe not to panic, but warned the virus could spread further when birds migrate. The H5N1 strain of the virus, which can kill humans through contact with infected animals, has lately been found in Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. Further investigations are to be approved out on three swans found in southern Hungary to see if they died from H5N1. They have veteran positive for an H5 sub-type of the virus. A spokeswoman for the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds told the BBC News website it was possible that the birds had shifted further westwards than normal in search for food following particularly cold weather in countries like Ukraine.
An exclusion zone has been forced in the area where the swans were found in Germany. German health authorities are holding a crisis meeting to discuss the situation. Germany's top medical research authority, the Robert Koch Institute, which carried out the tests, says there is no reason for panic in Germany. A UK laboratory is carrying out further tests on the dead birds. The same laboratory will test the swans found in Bacs-Kiskun in southern Hungary to conclude which strain of the H5 bird flu virus they have. The Hungarian authorities have restricted entrance to the two villages where the swans were found and put measures in place to prevent the spread of the disease.
Bird Flu VaccinesThe main cause of the bird flu is the avian influenza virus. This virus does not naturally occur in humans but it is seen in the ..... Another eleven swans found in the north of Hungary near the border with Slovakia are being veteran for the virus. The two-day meeting will examine additional measures that EU governments could take to stop the increase of the virus. The German government announced on Tuesday it was bringing forward to next week a ban on keeping poultry outdoors, initially scheduled to come into effect at the beginning of March. Further restrictions are now probable to be introduced, a BBC correspondent says. Slovakia has banned the sale of poultry in markets subsequent to the Austrian cases. The BBC's Christian Fraser, in Rome, says sales of poultry in Italy have fallen radically since H5N1 was discovered in eight dead swans, despite government assurances that it had not spread to chicken farms.
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