Bulgaria Discovers Two New Cases of H5 Bird Flu
Date: 10-Feb-06
Country: BULGARIA
The announcement comes a week after Bulgaria found its first case of bird flu in a sick swan in the Danube River.
"We have two new samples from swans that have reacted to H5," Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil told journalists.
Test results on whether the first infected swan was actually carrying H5N1, the strain which has killed at least 88 people and millions of birds since 2003, are due early next week.
Kabil said one of the newly discovered swans was found in the Shabla lake near the northern border with Romania, which along with Bulgaria's southern neighbour Turkey, has been battling dozens of outbreaks of H5N1 since October.
The other bird was found near the Black Sea port town Varna.
Health Minister Radoslav Gaidarski said samples would be sent to an EU-certified laboratory outside of London on Monday.
Greece said on Thursday it found samples of the H5 bird flu virus in three swans in northern areas of the country which borders with Turkey.
The Bulgarian Health Minister urged calm, saying authorities had taken appropriate measures to stop the spread of the disease.
"We shouldn't panic the public," Gaidarski said.
"Even if we find new H5 cases, it's not worrying if domestic birds are not in contact with wildfowl... We've taken additional measures to inform district officials to restrict domestic birds from going in the streets and lakes."
