Bird flu found in Romanian ducks (H5, but maybe not H5N1)

[muriel_volestrangler]

The EU has banned all bird and poultry products from Romania after tests confirmed the presence of a strain of bird flu there.

Duck samples tested positive for the H5 virus, contradicting earlier findings.

But there is no evidence yet that the strain is the serious H5N1 variety, which has killed 60 people in Asia. Further tests will be carried out.
...
Only on Wednesday an EU spokesman had said: "All the virological tests carried out to date in Romania have failed to identify the presence of the avian influenza virus. Every day that passes... reassures us that avian influenza is not in fact present in Romania."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4337028.stm

[Eugene]

1. Related - AP: EU says bird flu found in Turkey is deadly H5N1 strain

EU says bird flu found in Turkey is deadly H5N1 strain

The Associated Press

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2005
BRUSSELS, Belgium The European Union on Thursday said the bird flu
virus found in Turkish poultry was the H5N1 strain that scientists
worry might mutate into a human virus and spark a pandemic.

"We have received now confirmation that the virus found in Turkey
is an avian flu H5N1 virus," said EU Health Commissioner Markos
Kyprianou. "There is a direct relationship with viruses found
in Russia, Mongolia and China."

<snip>

[Why Syzygy]

4. If recent disaster "relief" efforts

are any indication, brace yourselves. No one is coming to rescue.

[Mojorabbit]

5. From cnn

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/10/13/eu.birdflu/index.html?section=cnn_latest

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu has been found in Turkish poultry and is likely present in Romania, the European Commission has said.

H5N1 does not easily infect humans although 117 people, mostly poultry workers, have caught it since 2003 and 60 of them have died.

Scientists are tracking the spread of the virus in birds, which they fear could mutate into a dangerous human pandemic strain. The worries have forced the slaughter of millions of birds, mainly in Asia.

"The virus found in Turkey is avian flu H5N1 high pathogenic virus," the EC's Health and Consumer Protection chief Markos Kyprianou told a news conference in Brussels on Thursday.


Migration must be starting. Fingers crossed no one comes down with it. I hate that so many birds have to be culled.

[slaveplanet]

17. Birds migrate from north

to south....if it is the same strain...it wasn't from migration

[Mojorabbit]

18. This article has this about the quarantine and migration

in Romania

The village of Ceamurlia de Jos, where the flu was detected, was quarantined, and police stood guard with dogs, assault rifles and stun grenades. Officials 180 miles (300 kilometers) west in the capital Bucharest called for calm and readied 46,000 vaccine doses amid concerns about a worldwide flu outbreak.

snip
Authorities quarantined an area of 3 kilometers (2 miles) around Ceamurlia de Jos. They're monitoring an area of 10 kilometers around the village and sent out 10 teams of vets and police to seek signs of bird flu and kill fowl.

``It's better to give away our chickens than give away our lives,'' said Marina, a farmer sitting on a horse-drawn cart loaded with corn, in an interview. She refused to give her last name. ``They sent in food aid today and they started with sugar so maybe this will sweeten up our bitterness.''

snip
http://www.rednova.com/news/general/270690/turkey_conducts_bird_flu_investigation/index.html?source=r_general
The Interior Ministry has extended a quarantine in the village of Ceamurlia de Jos, where the infected fowl was found, to people. Only authorities are allowed to enter and exit the remote village, which is located in the east of the delta, close to the Black Sea


http://www.rednova.com/news/general/270690/turkey_conducts_bird_flu_investigation/index.html?source=r_general
Gheorghe Ion, a policeman guarding the entrance to Ceamurlia de Jos, said villagers complained when the government said last week it suspected bird flu lay behind fowl deaths in the area. They became quieter with yesterday's news.

Turkish authorities believe the turkeys contracted the disease from migratory birds that pass through the Manyas Bird Sanctuary just outside of the village on their way to Africa from the Ural mountains in Russia.

[slaveplanet]

20. Great

from the Ural mountains in Russia.


So now all they have to do is find a bunch of dead birds in the Urals and figure out how it got to the Urals from South east Asia/China...
pity those ducks too...migrate from north to south...They must've got some bad directions or it could've have been a hell of a windstorm

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. The different routes of birds cross in the far north

From the BBC article on the Turkey outbreak.

[slaveplanet]

23. OK, so then

where are all the cases up north...or south for that matter :shrug:

It appears as if someone is attempting to heighten the panic surrounding the predicted influenza epidemic. Researchers at Hokkaido University in Japan began to wonder how birds in nearby farms acquired the bird flu. They checked on the genetic makeup of the virus and it is "strikingly similar to that of a bird flu virus found in South America, too far for migrating birds to carry into Japan." This led investigators to surmise somebody brought a vaccine into Japan and injected it into some birds, infecting the animals around them. Japan Times Sept. 3, 2005 The mysterious appearance of avian flu in birds around the world could be explained by contaminated avian vaccines!

There is still no explanation for the mutated human influenza virus found in a pig in South Korea. Somebody intentionally placed this human virus inside this animal. If it infected a human, it would make it appear the virus "jumped" from animals to humans.

Wandering far from its field of expertise, Charlene Porter of the Washington File, a publication of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State, writes that a species of flu virus once thought to be unique to horses has now infected dogs and could jump from animals to humans. Sept. 30, 2005 Horrors, we may be culling populations of pet dogs in America as they are birds in Asia. Better hide Fido. There are approximately 50 million pet dogs in the US. This is sheer propaganda and the news media has re-printed it widely without question. The orchestrated terror is coming from all quarters of government.

Julie Gerberding, Centers for Disease Control chief, says her agency is getting ready for a possible pandemic next year. Associated Press, Feb. 22, 2005 Public health authorities and politicians are so committed to the inevitability of a flu pandemic, it’s as if there is no way they won’t let this event happen.

[Nihil]

19. That's ganders for you ...

... never stop to ask directions when they're lost ...

[demobrit]

2. BreakingNews BBC: Turkey bird flu 'deadly strain'

The bird flu virus found in Turkey is the H5N1 strain dangerous to humans, the EU Commission has said.
Scientists have been carrying out tests for the strain on dead birds from a farm in Kiziksa, north-west Turkey.

The EU Commission has banned all bird and poultry imports from Turkey and Romania following confirmed bird flu outbreaks in both countries
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4337918.stm

[Orrin_73]

10. Sad, The Turkish poultry industry

recently got permission to export to the EU, now this.

[malaise]

3. Cough, cough

:puke: :puke: :puke: Bullspit!

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. That's a nasty case of vomitting you've got there

Maybe you should get it checked out by a doctor? There's a lot of viruses going around, they say ... ;-)

[malaise]

14. hahaha

Not at all. I'm allergic to vulgar and dangerous spin. Now some indictments would be my gravol.:D :D

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

6. Turkish turkey poultry?

Melonhawg

[acmavm]

8. Folks, there have been sixty (60) deaths since 2003. This is not

the bubonic plague.

[Irish Mastiff]

9. No, not yet. The potential is there. It is like New Orleans.

The potential for a killer hurricane was there. Bush cut funding for the levees in the face of the warnings of diaster. If Bush had fully funded the levees we might still have New Orleans.
Here we have the same potential. This strain might mutate to be the equivalent of the Spanish Flu. It isn't there yet. We hope it won't happen. However, it might.
Isn't the prudent course to get prepared?

[knitter4democracy]

15. Sixty deaths out of 117 cases is why they're worried.

It's not easily transmissible yet, but when it mutates to be easily passed from human to human, it will be a big problem. If we're really lucky, when it mutates it will also lose much of its lethal kick. If we're not . . . well, that is what keeps my husband up nights.

It's already passing from person to person but not easily. There are cases that have strong evidence that they caught it from the person they were caring for, not from infected birds.

[HeeBGBz]

11. I was working with some Romanian foreign exchange students

They just went home about two weeks ago. Bummer.

[Timmy5835]

12. CALM THE FUCK DOWN AND READ A NEWSPAPER

From TODAYS L.A. Times; Additional Tests Show No Bird Flu in Romania, Experts say.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Gee, do you think that might be what this refers to:

Only on Wednesday an EU spokesman had said: "All the virological tests carried out to date in Romania have failed to identify the presence of the avian influenza virus. Every day that passes... reassures us that avian influenza is not in fact present in Romania."

I even put that in the excerpt in the OP, so that you didn't have to bother reading the BBC story.

Hey, guess what - here's the L.A. Times current web story on flu in Romania:

Additional Tests Show Bird Flu, Experts Say

The European Commission said it was banning the import of live birds and poultry from Romania after its experts confirmed a strain of avian influenza in samples from a Romanian duck and chicken.

The Commission said its experts detected H5 virus strain in two Danube delta samples.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-briefs13.3oct13,1,6430792.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Do try to keep up. And while you're about it, there's no need to shout at people by using capitals, whether fucking or not.

[MaineDem]

16. BBC this minute reporting it IS the avian flu

Welcome to DU and you might want to calm down just a tad yourself.

[rfkrfk]

21. BIRD FLU Alert Level --> Orange , avoid travel to the EU

and Toronto, Canada