Bulgaria bans Romanian poultry over bird flu

SOFIA, May 25 (Reuters) Bulgaria said it would ban poultry products from its northern Black Sea neighbour Romania today after the discovery of dozens of new cases of avian flu there.

Romanian officials have culled domestic birds and temporarily quarantined populated areas, including part of the capital Bucharest, after detecting over 40 cases of the potentially lethal H5N1 virus in birds this month.

''We are looking at the situation in Romania with concern,'' Bulgarian Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil told journalists.

''I am preparing a ban for the import of live birds, eggs and poultry meat produced in Romania. It will be signed by the end of the day.'' Earlier this year, Bulgaria detected four cases of bird flu -- far fewer than Romania or its southern neighbour Turkey -- in wild swans suspected of carrying the disease from northern Russia as they migrated south for winter.

Experts feared more outbreaks would occur as flocks returned north this spring, but so far, Kabil said Bulgaria had registered no new cases.

But he said authorities would step up checks, boosting border controls with Romania and urging people to keep domestic birds indoors.

''We have to live next to this virus that is highly pathogenic. But what is more worrying is that it may possibly be transferred from human to human,'' he said.

Neither Romania nor Bulgaria has detected any human cases of the flu, which has killed more than 120 people and tens of millions of birds, mostly in Asia, since 2003.

It is not easily passed between humans, but virologists fear it could mutate into an easily transmissble form and spark a global pandemic.

REUTERS SI RAI2139