EU scrambles to find ways to curb spread of bird flu

EUROPEAN leaders took urgent new action to counter fast-multiplying outbreaks of bird flu, ordering poultry indoors to avoid infection but urging consumers not to panic.

The European Union's executive arm also warned that it expects more cases as warm spring weather brings a seasonal migration of swans and other wild birds carrying the potentially lethal disease.

As Germany became the latest EU country to confirm the lethal H5N1 strain of the disease, EU health experts agreed to ban all imports of untreated feathers to further reduce the "high risk" of the disease spreading.

"Today's decision... was taken in light of the rapid spread of avian influenza over the past months and the current high risk of the disease spreading further," said the European Commission.

So far, the presence of H5N1 virus - which in its highly pathogenic form can be fatal to humans - has been confirmed in recent days in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania and the European part of Russia.

Preliminary tests have proven positive in Austria, while Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia and Ukraine are investigating suspected cases. EU health commissioner Marko Kyprianou, attending the two days of talks with health experts from member states, underlined that there is unlikely to be an early end to the cases of bird flu.

"Given that the spring migration will begin soon, we will review again the situation to see if there's need for additional methods... We shouldn't be surprised if we have more migratory wild birds with this virus."

"There's no need to panic," he warned. "We have to advise the European public to stay calm... There's no reason not to consume chicken."

The potentially lethal H5N1 strain has killed at least 90 people - almost half those who caught it - mostly in south-east Asia and China where it first erupted but also in Turkey and northern Iraq.

The big fear in the EU, the world's third biggest exporter of poultry after the US and Brazil, is that the virus passes from migratory swans to chickens, or other birds in the human food chain.

To head off that risk a number of countries, including Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Sweden, have ordered poultry and tame birds to be kept indoors to avoid contamination.

Flu spreads

* Germany: Experts said further testing found H5N1 in two dead swans found on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen - the country's first known cases.

* Denmark: At least nine wild swans turned up dead on an island near Ruegen, further tests will determine if the swans died of bird flu.

* Poland: Three swans, which died in Krynica Morska on the Baltic coast, are being tested for the virus.

* Austria: A laboratory said two swans tested positive for H5N1.

* Italy: Tests confirmed H5N1 in two more birds, in addition to the six announced last weekend.

* Greece: Two elderly people who buried a dead chicken with their bare hands and are showing flu symptoms were admitted to hospital.