Thursday, March 23, 2006
New bird flu cases in Greece
Greece’s agriculture ministry said on Thursday that a new case of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus has been discovered in a wild swan, bringing to 33 the number of cases found in the country to date.
The laboratory that confirmed the presence of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in the swan, which provides official confirmation for the European Union of bird flu cases in Europe, is located in Weybridge, Britain
The dead swan was discovered in Epanomi, near Greece’s second most populous city, Salonika.
Greece’s first known avian outbreak of the H5N1 virus—which has killed more than 100 people worldwide since 2003, mainly in Asia—was reported on February 11. Since then, 33 wild birds have been confirmed as infected with the virus, mainly swans.
There have been no outbreaks in domestic poultry, as has occurred in many other affected countries. Consumption of poultry in Greece, since the outbreak, has declined by 75 percent and as much as 85 percent in the northern part of the country.