Suspected Bird Flu Cases In France Had Negative Test Results

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Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Flu / Cold / SARS
Article Date: 23 Jan 2006 - 16:00 PDT

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A French woman who had travelled from Turkey to Montpellier (France) and was suspected of being infected with bird flu had negative test results, said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in France.

The woman, aged 32, began to complain of shortness of breath and having bird flu like symptoms. She had been at the Turkish town of Tarsus before returning to France.

When describing her bird flu like symptoms she also told health care professionals that she had seen dead birds in Tarsus.

Western Europe is bracing itself for the arrival of bird flu, which has made its way to Turkey all the way from south east Asia.

The UK government, along with many other EU nations, is setting up a contingency plan in which all free-range poultry farmers will have to keep their birds indoors. Free-range eggs and poultry meat are becoming more and more popular in Western Europe. A free-range chicken, unlike a battery chicken, roams around freely on fenced in land. Consumers are buying free range products for ethical reasons (the poultry have a better quality of life).

What is the difference between free-range chickens and organic chickens?

Organic chickens are given food that is natural (no chemicals or insecticides in the food), they are not given hormones. Free range chickens roam around on grassland pecking at the ground - as opposed to battery chickens that live in tiny cages all their lives.

Either type of chicken can be organic or not organic.

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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