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update:Jun 13, 2006
EU surveillance of bird flu in wild birds published
The European Commission and the Community Reference Laboratory (CRL)
for bird flu in Weybridge have published the results of the surveillance for
avian influenza in wild birds carried out in the EU over the past 10
months.
The data was presented at the FAO/OIE International Scientific Conference on
Avian Influenza and Wild Birds in Rome.
Although final figures for
February-May 2006 are still being collected it is estimated that around 60,000
wild birds were tested for bird flu in the EU during that period. This, combined
with the 39,000 wild birds tested between July 2005-January 2006, means that
almost 100,000 tests for the H5N1 virus have been carried out on wild birds over
the past 10 months.
Since February 2006, more than 700 wild birds across 13 Member States
(Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, Slovakia, Sweden,
Poland, Denmark, Czech Republic and UK) have been found to be infected with the
H5N1 strain. However, there has been a decline in the incidence of the disease
in wild birds in Europe over the past weeks.
There have been four
outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu in poultry in the EU, all of which were swiftly
eradicated following detection. So far there have been no human case of the H5N1
virus in the EU.
To view the Commission and CRL presentations and the
surveillance
Editor WorldPoultry
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