Romania culls birds as avian flu outbreaks multiply

BUCHAREST, May 26 (Reuters) Romania has reported more than 70 outbreaks of avian flu in birds over the past two weeks, mostly in the central region of Transylvania, a month after the strain was said to have been eradicated in the Black Sea state.

The latest outbreaks originated at a poultry farm in the county of Brasov, some 170 km north of Bucharest, from where live chickens were sold to peasants across the country without health certificates, the government says.

''The bird flu virus has been confirmed in 75 localities from 13 counties. There are also 35 suspect locations. The national institute for animal health is further testing suspect deaths in fowl,'' the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.

Three districts in the capital Bucharest are among those affected. Over the past 10 days alone, authorities have culled 450,000 birds to prevent the spread of the virus, which a World Health Organisation expert says ''has broken out very rapidly.'' The Romanians have culled one million fowl and put an end to 60 outbreaks of bird flu since the first case was detected in the Danube delta last year, officials say.

Romania has not reported any cases of bird flu in people.

CHIEF VET SACKED Last week, the government sacked the country's chief veterinarian accusing him of negligence.

Romania wants to join the European Union in 2007 and one of the criteria is the ability to deal with food safety issues.

''In only two weeks there have been more outbreaks than in several months following October's detection of the strain,'' Victor Olsavszky, the WHO representative in Romania told Reuters.

Bulgaria said yesterday it would ban poultry products from its northern neighbour due to the resurgence of bird flu.

In a report this week, Romania's SRI secret service said it could not rule out the possibility that outbreaks might have been caused by imports of birds from EU-member states.

Both the media and the government slammed the report saying it was hastily drafted and jumped to groundless conclusions.

The Health Ministry said home quarantine measures for Romanians living in bird flu-affected areas were scrapped, in line with recent WHO guidance.

''Home quarantine will not be enforced anymore following WHO recommendation. But we will heighten control of movement of people along with disinfection measures,'' Rodica Costina, head of the public health department told Reuters.

Costina said laboratory tests on 17 people admitted to hospitals with flu symptoms over the past few days showed that they were not infected with the bird flu virus.

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

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

REUTERS SHR RAI2039