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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Taro who wrote (276989)	2/27/2006 12:18:23 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576329

France begins poultry vaccination, bird flu spreads By David Evans 48 minutes ago PARIS (Reuters) - France began vaccinating thousands of geese and ducks against avian flu on Monday while Niger became the second West African country to be hit by a virus which is spreading among birds at unprecedented speed. Tests on domestic ducks from Niger were positive for the H5N1 bird flu virus. Neighbouring Nigeria has already been hit by bird flu in poultry and on Monday reported outbreaks in birds in another two states. The Black Sea state of Georgia said it had found the H5N1 strain in wild swans as the virus, which is endemic in birds in parts of Asia, extends its sweep across the globe. In the Balkans, Bosnia said tests had confirmed its first case of H5N1 in two wild swans. As many as 19 new countries have reported outbreaks in birds over the past month. Ilaria Capua, a top European expert on avian influenza with the World Animal Health Organization, the OIE, said the spread of the virus to the wild bird population has meant the situation in Europe was now akin "to living under machine-gun fire." "And the spring migration from Africa will make us even more exposed," she said. "This is the first time in history that it (bird flu) has been widespread in wild birds," she added. The virus has killed 93 people in Asia and the Middle East since late 2003, according to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO). It remains essentially an animal disease which humans contract only through close contact with infected birds. However, there are fears the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die. FRANCE TRADE FEARS France started the vaccination campaign in the department of the Landes, in the southwest of the country, one of the areas deemed to be at risk from the spread of the virus by migratory birds. France is Europe's biggest poultry producer and has a confirmed case of H5N1 bird flu at a turkey farm in the east, the first farm in the European Union to contract the virus. The bird flu outbreak could deal a heavy blow to France's poultry industry, worth six billion euros ($7 billion) per year. However, opinion is divided over whether vaccination helps to support trade or makes the situation more difficult, with some markets shunning meat from countries with vaccination programmes. Japan has banned poultry imports from France over bird flu and has threatened similar action against the Netherlands because of its vaccination programme. The Dutch plan to vaccinate some of their backyard and free-range poultry. AFRICA HIT China said on Saturday that a nine-year-old girl and a woman farmer were its latest human victims of the disease. Both remain in critical condition, the WHO said on Monday. The WHO also confirmed that an Indonesian woman who died last week was a bird flu victim. She is the 20th person in Indonesia killed by the virus. Bernardus Ganter from the WHO regional office for Europe said southeast Asia, long the epicentre of the disease, remained an area where the emergence of a pandemic strain was a particular threat. "In places in southeast Asia where birds are together with humans, pigs and domestic fowl, the opportunities are much higher," he told reporters in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. Experts also fear the virus could spread rapidly in Africa where chickens live in millions of homes and health, veterinary and laboratory services are often poor. Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has reported bird flu in seven of its 36 states and in its central Federal Capital Territory. Niger, one of the poorest countries on earth, shares a 1,500 km (900 mile) border with Nigeria. An OIE spokeswoman said there were two outbreaks, one of which was close to the border with Nigeria. "We've been officially informed that the presence of the virus has been notified on the sample from Niger but we are waiting for official documents to know ... what type of strain it is," Niger's government spokesman Mohamed Ben Omar said.