Bird flu outbreak in France
Thursday, 05 Jul 2007 17:17
Bird flu kills three swans in France
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France is on high alert after three swans were found to have died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
Tests have confirmed the virus, which can be fatal to humans, was the cause of death for the three birds in Assenoncourt, north-east France, close to the German border.
The threat level posed by bird flu to France has now been raised to high by the country's agriculture ministry.
"The national laboratory of the French agency for animal health has confirmed the presence of the H5N1 highly-pathogenic virus on the three swans found dead in a pond near the town of Assenoncourt," agriculture minister Michel Barnier said.
A 1km exclusion zone has now been installed around where the dead birds were discovered in Moselle, as well as a 15km observation zone.
Last month the virus was found in both the Czech Republic and Germany, while in 2006 62 turkeys were found to have died from the virus in central France.
Almost 200 people, mostly from south-east Asia, have been killed by bird flu since 2003 amid fears the highly-pathogenic H5N1 virus could mutate to become easily transmutable between humans.