Deadly Bird Flu Found In Wild Birds In Nuremberg, Germany

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Main Category: Bird Flu / Avian Flu
Also Included In: Veterinary;  Public Health
Article Date: 25 Jun 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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Germany's national laboratory for avian flu testing confirmed on Sunday evening that three swans had tested positive for the strain of H5N1 bird flu that is deadly to humans. This brings to six the total number of wild birds found dead within the last few days in the Bavarian city of Nuremberg that have tested positive for the disease; five mute swans and a Canada goose.

The tests were carried out at Germany's Federal Research Institute for Animal Health based at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) in Insel Riems, near Greifswald in north eastern Germany.

President of the FLI, Professor Thomas Mettenleiter, said in a prepared statement that the FLI were not surprised by the return of the virus after hearing of the outbreak at a turkey farm in Böhmen Ende in the Czech republic last week. The outbreak resulted in the culling of 6,000 turkeys on the farm. Nuremberg is 120 km from the Czech border.

FLI's spokeswoman for animal health, Elke Reinking, said it was feasible that the virus had been brought into Germany via migrating wild birds or it could have already been present in the German wild bird population.

Scientists at the FLI are puzzled as to why the outbreak has occurred in the summer since birds aren't at the height of their migration in the summer.

According to Bavarian health officials there is no danger to humans from the present outbreak.

The local authorities have cordoned off an area within a 4 km radius of the two lakes where the infected birds were found; the area is designated a high risk zone and restrictions on animal movements are in force.

Poultry farms within the high risk zone must keep their birds indoors for the time being, no birds can be transported into or out of the zone, and pet owners are asked not to allow their cats and dogs to wander about freely in the area.

"We will be monitoring to see if the virus spreads via wild birds in the rest of Germany," said Prof Mettenleiter.

The prime danger is that animals and birds will become infected; the risk to humans is very small since they would have to come into direct contact with infected birds. There is no cause for panic, said Mettenleiter.

However, as a precaution, shooting of wild birds should be stopped he said.

Germany's last epidemic of H5N1 started in 2005 in Ruegen near the Baltic Sea and spread to 6 of Germany's 16 states, including Bavaria where the current outbreak has occurred.

The disease spread from birds to mammals, including three cats and a marten. No human cases were reported. The last reported case in Germany was in August last year, in a swan in a zoo in Dresden.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been 313 confirmed cases and 191 deaths among humans worldwide due to the deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu, the majority being in Indonesia (100 cases, 80 deaths) and VietNam (93 cases, 42 deaths).

Click here to read the World Health Organization's Frequently Asked Questions page on bird flu.

Click here for Avian Influenza information from the European Commission Animal Health and Welfare site.

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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