Romania finds new suspect avian flu cases in fowl

BUCHAREST, March 5 (Reuters) Romania found new suspected bird flu cases in a Danube river village on Sunday and began a bird cull as a precaution against the disease, authorities said.

''Rapid tests on samples taken from fowl in two household farms from the village of Borcea in the Calarasi county, led to suspicion of bird flu,'' the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement. It said around 100,000 birds were being culled.

Further tests will be done in Bucharest to see if it is the deadly avian flu strain H5N1 which can infect humans.

On Friday, Romanian authorities detected H5N1 in domestic birds in a village 80 km west of the capital and in a wild goose in the city of Buzau.

Avian flu has been found in 40 villages and a small Black Sea resort since the virus was first detected in the Danube Delta in October. Hundreds of thousands of birds have been culled and Romania has not reported any cases in humans.

REUTERS SY RN1625