Bird flu virus poses no risk to humans
Officials have been seeking to allay fears across Europe after a deadly strain of bird flu was identified in Greece, Romania and Turkey in recent days.
Among the key points: while the H5N1 strain of bird flu might mutate and spawn a human virus that could kill millions of people, in its current form it is difficult to transmit to people.
Veterinarians from Turkey’s Agriculture Ministry said that nearly 10,000 birds had been culled in the village of Kiziksa following a mandatory order to deliver them for destruction and that the outbreak of bird flu had been contained. Officials also said the incubation period for the bird flu detected in Kiziksa already had passed and there was no danger that the virus detected there could spread.
Authorities are on alert across Turkey, however, and have warned that migratory birds could still spread the flu elsewhere.
“We are very satisfied with the information that we got from the Turkish authorities. We feel that the outbreak was dealt with in a proper way,” said delegation member Philippe Houdart.
“There is no indication that this is a human health problem here in Turkey,” Houdart said earlier.
Erik Stougaard, the former chief veterinary officer of Denmark and the other member of the visiting EU delegation, earlier told The Associated Press that Turkey was “very well prepared” to deal with the outbreak. He said he was in Turkey in September to watch a Turkish exercise in Bandirma, near Kiziksa, on how to deal with bird flu.
EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Sunday the EU will not hesitate to propose “drastic measures” to fight the spread of bird flu if current safeguards prove insufficient. The EU has banned all poultry imports from Romania and Turkey. It also has recommended that member states increase security measures on farms and called an emergency meeting of EU veterinary experts for Thursday to assess developments.
The virus found on a farm in Kiziksa, some 80 miles from Istanbul, was the deadly H5N1 strain that has decimated flocks in Asia and killed dozens of people there since 2003. Authorities around the world fear it could mutate into a deadly form of flu that can be passed among people, leading to a pandemic which could kill millions.
Experts believe the disease was brought by wild birds migrating through Turkey from the Ural Mountains in Russia to Africa. Mustafa Altuntas, the head of an association of Turkish veterinarians, said there was a risk of new outbreaks in other parts of Turkey, especially near wetlands.
The World Health Organisation siad bird flu can be expected to spread to other countries, but the biggest threat of it mutating into a human virus that could kill millions across the world remains in Asia.
