Veterinary experts meet in Paris to discuss fight against bird flu

INTERNATIONAL veterinary experts gathered in Paris to discuss the fight against bird flu as the lethal H5N1 strain made further advances in Africa, was confirmed in Bosnia, and French authorities started a mass vaccination programme of ducks and geese.

Chief veterinary officers from more than 50 countries in Europe as well as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Syria and Iran started a two-day meeting at the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) aimed at co-ordinating their response to the worsening epidemic.

"They will be hearing country-by-country situation reports, analysing the way the virus is spreading and recommending coordinated measures for detection and control," said OIE spokeswoman Maria Zampaglione.

OIE director-general Bernard Vallat warned that bird flu was transforming from "epidemic to pandemic."

"With the exception of Australia and New Zealand, which are not hit by bird migrations from affected areas, the rest of the world is directly exposed. ... Various clues have raised the fear it could contaminate the American continent," he told France's Le Monde newspaper.

The potentially deadly virus made new strides in Africa, with cases reported in Niger.

Nigeria, which was previously the only west African country with the disease, reported that two more states in the north Yobe and Nassarawa had been hit by the virus.

In Nairobi, Kenyan authorities said 400 dead chickens were being tested for H5N1.

The bird flu virus is carried mainly by wild waterfowl, and with the springtime migration north to Europe imminent, the implications of large-scale African infection are far-reaching.

In France, where on Saturday Europe's first case of H5N1 in domestic fowl was confirmed at a turkey farm, authorities in the southwest began a vaccination programme of some 700,000 geese and ducks used in the production of foie gras.

France now has 17 reported cases of the H5N1 virus in wild birds, after 15 dead swans were included at the weekend. All have been found in the eastern Ain department, where hundreds of turkeys succumbed at a farm on Thursday.

Elsewhere, Germany reported more flu cases in wild birds and Switzerland said a first case of the broader H5 virus had been detected.