France rates bird flu risk as negligible

PARIS, Nov 7 (Reuters) France said today it had classified the risk of its domestic poultry flock catching bird flu from migratory wildfowl as negligible.

With the northern hemisphere's autumn migration of birds towards warmer wintering grounds almost over, top officials said there was no need to change its bird flu alert rating.

''By now in early November, we can consider the bulk of the migration that's come from northern and eastern Europe, is practically finished,'' Patrice Blanchet, senior official at the environment ministry, told a news conference.

France has a six-point alert system, developed by its national food safety agency AFSSA, which evaluates the risk to domestic poultry from infection by the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus from migrating birds.

It does not take account of any potential infection from either legal or illegal commercial trade in poultry.

The country is currently on the second lowest level, negligible 2, which assumes there may be possible cases in areas from where migrating birds start their journeys south but that the disease has not been detected in migrating birds themselves.

Under the system, poultry would be confined, and only then in those areas designated at risk, if the alert level moved up to four, with H5N1 detected in migrating birds crossing France.

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease but it has infected more than 250 people worldwide since late 2003, killing more than 150, according to the World Health Organization.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that is easily transmissible between humans and spark an influenza pandemic, killing millions of people.

Research published in the United States earlier this month highlighted the role played by migrating ducks, geese and swans in spreading H5N1 from Russia, Turkey and Ukraine in 2005.

France ordered farmers to lock up poultry in parts of the country in October 2005 as the disease spread into Europe.

The country eventually detected a first case of H5N1 in a wild duck in February this year and within days the virus had spread to a turkey farm.

Although more cases in wild birds were discovered, there were no further farm outbreaks and the order to keep poultry locked up was lifted in May.

Reuters AKJ GC2154