New bird flu case detected in central Italy

[ukcz]

Italy investigating 'probable' bird flu cases
11/02/2006 - 10:34:37

Italy’s health minister said today that authorities were investigating probable cases of bird flu.

“Checks are under way on probable cases of avian influenza in our country,” Health Minister Francesco Storace said.

He said he would brief a Cabinet meeting later today. No other details were given.

Meanwhile, a wild goose on the central Aegean island of Skyros has tested positive for an H5 strain of bird flu, the Greek agriculture minister said today.

The samples will be sent to the European Union reference laboratory in Weybridge, Surrey, to determine whether the bird had the lethal H5N1 strain, Evangelos Bassiakos said.

Authorities on Friday intensified precautions in areas around Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki, where three migratory swans tested positive for an H5 strain of bird flu on Thursday, officials said.


http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/02/11/story244217.html

[HenryN]

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/news...DFLU-ITALY.xml

Italy testing for bird flu - source
Sat Feb 11, 2006 10:48 AM GMT

ROME (Reuters) - Italy is testing birds for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus after finding "probable cases" of the disease in birds in the southern island of Sicily.

A health ministry statement said that "Tests are under way for probable cases of Avian Flu in our country," and added that Health Minister Francesco Storace would brief the cabinet on developments later on Saturday.

A source close to the laboratories carrying out the tests said they involved diseased birds from Sicily, and said results of the tests were expected later on Saturday or on Sunday.
The source said they would be tested for the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East since early 2003.

[HenryN]

Commentray at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02...N1_Sicily.html

[ukcz]

Italy testing for bird flu
Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:16 AM GMT10

ROME (Reuters) - Italy is testing swans for the deadly H5N1 virus after finding "probable cases" of bird flu in birds in the southern island of Sicily, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

"Tests are under way for probable cases of Avian Flu in our country," a Health Ministry statement in Rome said. It added that Health Minister Francesco Storace would brief the cabinet on developments later in the day.

A regional health official in Sicily said the birds were swans believed to have migrated from Russia and that preliminary checks on dead birds made at a laboratory in Catania on the southern island had found "a mild form" of the H5N1 strain.

The birds were sent to a national laboratory in northern Padova for definitive tests. Those results were expected later on Saturday or on Sunday.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 88 people in Asia and the Middle East since early 2003.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/news...DFLU-ITALY.xml

[Sally Furniss]

Italy and Greece report bird flu cases in swans

The Associated Press

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2006
ROME Italy's health minister said Saturday that the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain had been detected in swans in the country - the first time the virus has been detected in Italy.
Also, Greece's agriculture minister confirmed Saturday that tests conducted in a British laboratory on samples from three swans in northern Greece revealed that they had died of the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Samples from the dead swans, found near the northern city of Thessaloniki, were sent Thursday to the EU reference laboratory in Weybridge, England, to determine whether the birds had the lethal H5N1 strain.
The virus was found in swans in three Italian regions: Puglia and Calabria in southern Italy, and Sicily, said Health Minister Francesco Storace. The swans had arrived from the Balkans, he said.
"It's certain that the virus has reached Italy," Storace told reporters after briefing the Cabinet on the situation.
Storace said there we no human cases of infection reported, and sought to reassure Italians that the outbreak posed no immediate threat to humans and only affected birds.
"It's a relatively safe situation for human health, less so for animal health," said Storace.
He did not give the exact number of the birds that had been infected by the virus. But he said most of the 17 swans who were found dead were likely infected with H5N1.
Testing was conducted in at a laboratory in the northern city of Padua, and more analyses were underway, Storace said. Further results were expected as early as Saturday afternoon.
The ministry was looking at taking precautions in the areas where the virus was detected, such as limiting movement of animals.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/11/europe/web.bflu

[MichaelJFox]

This is kinda scary, it keeps moving west and once its in europe it will be here in a matter of weeks. Its going to be "Very soon" and our government is going to keep it from us, i know it.

[Mellie]

Italy checks for more H5N1 cases among birds

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1292177.htm

Italy checks for more H5N1 cases among birds
12 Feb 2006 16:11:37 GMT

By Philip Pullella

ROME, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Health workers fanned out on Sunday in the southern countryside and the government urged people not to touch dead birds after Italy detected the highly pathogenic form of the H5N1 virus in swans.

The health ministry said 22 wild swans had now been found dead in three southern regions, confirming the arrival in the European Union of the strain of the disease that can be lethal for humans.

Of the 22 dead birds, five -- two on the mainland and three on the island of Sicily -- were killed by the highly pathogenic strain of the virus.

The arrival of bird flu in Italy dominated the front pages of Sunday newspapers, eclipsing even the start of the campaign for an April general election.

The Health Ministry said checks were being made on a swan found dead in the central Abruzzo region. If it tested positive it would bring the number of affected regions to four and move the crisis substantially further north.

The ministry issued an appeal to Italians not to touch any dead birds they may encounter but to call fire brigades or local health services.

In the southern Puglia region, some 50 health workers and technicians were checking the area around the nature reserve of Torre Colimena where one of the dead birds was found, Ansa news agency reported.

They were also making spot checks on poultry in a three-kilometre (1.8-mile) radius -- as required by a government plan -- but there were no immediate reports of more infected birds.

Checks were also being made in Calabria, the other southern mainland region where dead birds were found.

Saverio Cirininna, a regional health official in Sicily, told Ansa that hospitals there were put on preventive alert just as they had been three years ago when the SARS outbreak hit parts of Asia.

NO CAUSE FOR ALARM, OFFICIALS SAY

But officials have stressed that there was little chance of humans being infected because the birds were wild animals and not farm poultry as has been the case in some other countries.

At present, humans can only contract bird flu through close contact with an infected animal, something that is far less likely with wild birds than farmed flocks. Asian countries affected by the virus have destroyed millions of birds.

Experts fear that H5N1 will mutate just enough to allow it to pass easily from person to person. If it does so, it could cause a pandemic that could kill millions of people.

The Italian government has imposed a ban on the transportation of animals susceptible to the virus in the three regions.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said it was confident Italy was ready to deal with the outbreak and that the risk to humans was small.

[Sally Furniss]

W O R L D N E W S S T O R Y



Italy checks for more H5N1 cases among birds

13 February 2006
ROME: Health workers fanned out today in the southern countryside and the government urged people not to touch dead birds after Italy detected the highly pathogenic form of the H5N1 virus in swans.

The health ministry said 22 wild swans had now been found dead in three southern regions, confirming the arrival in the European Union of the strain of the disease that can be lethal for humans.
Of the 22 dead birds, five – two on the mainland and three on the island of Sicily – were killed by the highly pathogenic strain of the virus.
The arrival of bird flu in Italy dominated the front pages of Sunday newspapers, eclipsing even the start of the campaign for an April general election.
The Health Ministry said checks were being made on a swan found dead in the central Abruzzo region. If it tested positive it would bring the number of affected regions to four and move the crisis substantially further north.
The ministry issued an appeal to Italians not to touch any dead birds they may encounter but to call fire brigades or local health services.
In the southern Puglia region, some 50 health workers and technicians were checking the area around the nature reserve of Torre Colimena where one of the dead birds was found, Ansa news agency reported.
They were also making spot checks on poultry in a three-kilometre – as required by a government plan – but there were no immediate reports of more infected birds.
Checks were also being made in Calabria, the other southern mainland region where dead birds were found.
Saverio Cirininna, a regional health official in Sicily, told Ansa that hospitals there were put on preventive alert just as they had been three years ago when the Sars outbreak hit parts of Asia.
But officials have stressed that there was little chance of humans being infected because the birds were wild animals and not farm poultry as has been the case in some other countries.
At present, humans can only contract bird flu through close contact with an infected animal, something that is far less likely with wild birds than farmed flocks. Asian countries affected by the virus have destroyed millions of birds.
Experts fear that H5N1 will mutate just enough to allow it to pass easily from person to person. If it does so, it could cause a pandemic that could kill millions of people.
The Italian government has imposed a ban on the transportation of animals susceptible to the virus in the three regions.
The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said it was confident Italy was ready to deal with the outbreak and that the risk to humans was small.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3570832a12,00.html

[Sally Furniss]

Italy sounds alarm over avian flu

· Swans fleeing cold bring virus to western Europe
· Rome warns people not to handle dead or sick birds

John Hooper in Rome and Jeevan Vasagar in Nairobi
Monday February 13, 2006
The Guardian

The authorities in Rome last night appealed to Italians not to touch dead or sick birds, as alarm spread over the arrival in western Europe of a virulent form of the deadly strain of avian flu, H5N1. On Saturday, the health minister, Francesco Storace, announced the disease had reached Italy - apparently borne by migrating swans driven out of the Balkans by the intense cold of recent weeks. Yesterday, another case of avian flu was confirmed in neighbouring Slovenia, leading authorities in Austria to impose strict controls along the Austro-Slovenian frontier.

The keenest concern over the infection of human beings was in Nigeria, however. An investigation team was sent to a farm in Kaduna state where the H5N1 strain has been reported, and where at least two children were said to be sick.
In Italy, health workers carried out checks on wetlands, from Sicily in the south to near Venice in the north. Mr Storace said that a total of 22 wild swans had been found dead in three southern regions; five had been killed by a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1, which can be lethal to humans, two being found on the mainland and three in Sicily.
Mr Storace revealed that a dead swan had also been found at Pescara on the Adriatic. The woman who discovered it put the bird into a sack and delivered it to the local authorities. It was this incident that led the government to issue its warning against handling birds which could be infected. Guidelines being sent to health centres throughout the country advised anyone who came into contact with a suspect bird to wash both themselves and their clothing afterwards.
With alarm spreading, a health official at Crotone in Calabria denied reports that a child had been admitted to hospital after touching a dead chicken. From Sicily, it was reported that a swan living on a pond in a town in the centre of the island had been attacked and injured. The government said it was setting up a phone line to answer queries. Sicilian officials said some local people had called to ask if they could keep their pet canaries.

The European Commission said that Slovenia had sent samples of avian flu virus found in a swan to Britain for tests. Officials in Austria said Slovenian veterinarians had told them they had found the lethal H5N1 strain, but Slovenian authorities said they could only be sure it was H5. The area where the swan was collected was less than six miles from the border with Austria, the commission said.
Austria's southernmost province, Carinthia, introduced border controls on livestock and food from Slovenia. Dead swans in Greece and Bulgaria tested positive for the highly pathogenic version of the H5N1 strain on Saturday.
In Nigeria, the government said bird flu has now been confirmed at five farms and is suspected at a further 22.
Lola Sadiq, a bird flu expert with the World Health Organisation in the capital, Abuja, told Associated Press that a team had been sent to the farm where the disease was first detected: "They are monitoring the people, farmers ... to see if they have the virus." Chickens started dying four weeks ago, raising fears the virus might spread before emergency measures could be enforced. Police and veterinary officials have culled poultry across northern Nigeria. At one farm, according to reports, police slaughtered a flock of ostriches using automatic weapons.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/birdflu/st...708358,00.html

[Cautel]

BIRD FLU: ITALY ON ALERT AS SIX CASES OF H5N1 CONFIRMED

Feb-13-06 11:27

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_En....263774086&par=

Rome, 13 Feb. (AKI) - Italy's health minister Francesco Storace was set to visit three southern regions on Monday after the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus was found in wild swans there.

Italy reported 16 suspect deaths and six confirmed cases of the deadly virus in migratory birds recovered from the southern regions of Sicily, Puglia and Calabria. Meanwhile, Greece said on Monday that two people had been placed in quarantine pending the results of tests for possible bird flu, just two days after confirming the disease in three dead swans.

The first Greek case involving concerns a young man who came into contact with a swan nine days ago and a hunter who killed three wild ducks a week ago. Both are in quarantine in separate hospitals in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, close to where the initial cases of H5N1 bird flu were found last week.

The virus has reached two other European countries as a specialist UK laboratory identified the H5N1 strain in dead birds Bulgaria and Romania - along with the Greek cases. Slovenia has also reported a suspected case undergoing further tests at the EU reference laboratory for avian influenza in Weybridge, Britain.

Health officials in Italy have sealed off the areas where the virus has so far been detected: Pellaro and Pizzo Calabro in Calabria, Manduria in Puglia and Taormina, Giarre and Mascali in Sicily. Similar measures could be implemented in the province of Lecce, in the Puglia region, if the specialist laboratory in the north-eastern city of Padua handling the tests identifies the virus in a case detected on Monday.

Restrictions have been imposed on the mouvement of live animals and a hunting ban is in place in Italy. The health ministry has set up a toll free number - 1500 active from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. as of Monday - to give citizens information on the virus.

National authorities of the affected countries have committed to follow EU safety measures including a 3 kilometre protection zone around areas where the swans were found and a surrounding surveillance zone of 10 kilometres.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed at least 88 people since early 2003, mostly in south-east Asia, and experts now fear it might spread to the African continent - where poor living conditions expose many to the virus. Several cases have already been confirmed in poultry in Nigeria, threatening an important economic sector with an estimated 140 million birds.

The infected swans found in Italy are believed to have been returning to Europe from Russia and to have left the Balkans for the African continent because of the exceptionally cold weather.

The virus has also been detected in southern, western and northern Iraq and at least one person died from the H5N1 strain of avian influenza.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation warned last week that bird flu could already have arrived in countries neighbouring Turkey, where outbreaks were recorded in 26 of the country's 81 provinces and four people died from the virus.


(Ebc/Aki)

[Cautel]

Italy checks for more H5N1 cases among birds

12 Feb 2006 16:11:37 GMT
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1292177.htm



Healthy chickens are seen in a farm in the Sicilian city of Palermo, southern Italy, February 12, 2006. Italy said on Saturday five wild swans found in Sicily and on the southern mainland had tested positive for the highly pathogenic version of the H5N1 bird flu virus.
REUTERS/STRINGER/ITALY



Healthy chickens are seen in a farm in the Sicilian city of Palermo, southern Italy, February 12, 2006. Italy said on Saturday five wild swans found in Sicily and on the southern mainland had tested positive for the highly pathogenic version of the H5N1 bird flu virus.
REUTERS/STRINGER/ITALY



Healthy chickens are seen in a field in the Sicilian city of Palermo, southern Italy, February 12, 2006. Italy said on Saturday five wild swans found in Sicily and on the southern mainland had tested positive for the highly pathogenic version of the H5N1 bird flu virus.
REUTERS/STRINGER/ITALY



BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE Members of an Italian epidemic prevention team inspect a swan found near Barcellona Pozzo Di Gotto in Sicily February 12, 2006. Italy said on Saturday five wild swans found in Sicily and on the southern mainland had tested positive for the highly pathogenic version of the H5N1 bird flu virus.
REUTERS/HO

By Philip Pullella
ROME, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Health workers fanned out on Sunday in the southern countryside and the government urged people not to touch dead birds after Italy detected the highly pathogenic form of the H5N1 virus in swans.

The health ministry said 22 wild swans had now been found dead in three southern regions, confirming the arrival in the European Union of the strain of the disease that can be lethal for humans.

Of the 22 dead birds, five -- two on the mainland and three on the island of Sicily -- were killed by the highly pathogenic strain of the virus.

The arrival of bird flu in Italy dominated the front pages of Sunday newspapers, eclipsing even the start of the campaign for an April general election.
The Health Ministry said checks were being made on a swan found dead in the central Abruzzo region. If it tested positive it would bring the number of affected regions to four and move the crisis substantially further north.

The ministry issued an appeal to Italians not to touch any dead birds they may encounter but to call fire brigades or local health services.

In the southern Puglia region, some 50 health workers and technicians were checking the area around the nature reserve of Torre Colimena where one of the dead birds was found, Ansa news agency reported.

They were also making spot checks on poultry in a three-kilometre (1.8-mile) radius -- as required by a government plan -- but there were no immediate reports of more infected birds.

Checks were also being made in Calabria, the other southern mainland region where dead birds were found.

Saverio Cirininna, a regional health official in Sicily, told Ansa that hospitals there were put on preventive alert just as they had been three years ago when the SARS outbreak hit parts of Asia.

NO CAUSE FOR ALARM, OFFICIALS SAY

But officials have stressed that there was little chance of humans being infected because the birds were wild animals and not farm poultry as has been the case in some other countries.

At present, humans can only contract bird flu through close contact with an infected animal, something that is far less likely with wild birds than farmed flocks. Asian countries affected by the virus have destroyed millions of birds.

Experts fear that H5N1 will mutate just enough to allow it to pass easily from person to person. If it does so, it could cause a pandemic that could kill millions of people.

The Italian government has imposed a ban on the transportation of animals susceptible to the virus in the three regions.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said it was confident Italy was ready to deal with the outbreak and that the risk to humans was small.

AlertNet news is provided by

[Admin]

ItalY poultry sales dive on bird flu fears -farmers

13 Feb 2006 10:30:02 GMT

Source: Reuters
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13254522.htm

Background
Bird flu questions and answers

FACTBOX: Bird flu threatens to become global pandemic

MORE


ROME, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Italian poultry sales plunged more than 50 percent after news that the deadly bird flu virus had reached Italy, a farmers' group said on Monday.


The Italian Health Ministry announced at the weekend that the highly pathogenic strain of the H5N1 virus had been detected in six wild swans found dead in southern Italy.


Farmers' federation Coldiretti said indications from various regions showed that chicken sales had tumbled over the weekend because of the news.


"The kneejerk reaction of the market resulted in a fall of more than 50 percent in the consumption of chicken meat, which risks wrecking the poultry sector," Coldiretti said.


Poultry sales in Italy fell 10 percent in 2005 because of shoppers' fears about birdflu, spurring the government to launch a nationwide advertising campaign assuring consumers that Italian chickens were safe to eat.


The arrival of bird flu in southern Italy has dominated the newspapers, eclipsing even the start of the campaign for the April general elections and the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Turin.


Coldiretti said in its statement that the majority of the Italian poultry industry, which produces some 1.13 million tonnes of meat a year, was based in the north of the country.

AlertNet news is provided by

[ukcz]

Man on mayhem after losing job to bird flu
Rome | February 14, 2006 4:15:11 PM IST

An Italian lorry driver, who made a living out of transporting dead chickens, brutally killed his wife and daughter and then committed suicide after running out of business because of the bird flu scare, media reports said Tuesday.

Claudio Rubello, 49, used a bricklayer's hammer to kill his wife and his 10-year-old daughter Jennifer in their sleep. He then seriously injured his two teenage sons before killing himself with a kitchen knife, La Repubblica daily reported.

Witnesses say Rubello had fallen into depression after being told his services would no longer be required.

"He was very worried because we had told him that we would be needing much less of him because of the crisis that has hit our business," a former colleague in the road haulage business that used to employ Rubello told the paper.

Neighbours described him as "a normal, hardworking man" but were said to have become unhappy that he would park his car full of dead chickens near their homes.

The Italian poultry industry has suffered from declining sales due to the outbreak of bird flu, first detected on Saturday.

Experts say there is at present little danger of animal-to-human infection but fear that H5N1 could evolve into a strain that could be passed from human to human, not just from birds to human, as is currently the case, sparking a human flu pandemic.

http://news.webindia123.com/news/sho...9335&cat=World

[ukcz]

BIRD FLU: CALABRIA, MORE DEAD BIRDS

(AGI) - Cosenza, Feb 14. 2006
In Calabria, findings of dead animals by citizens alarmed by the threat of avian influenza continue to be reported to the police. In the Cosenza province, in the town of Rende, Coda di Volpe, a chicken and a dove have been found killed by wild dogs. In Diamante, Cammarotea, 10 bodies of chickens have been found. The cause of death is being looked into by personnel from the healthcare enterprise.

In Rossano, Pietrapaola Maria, a dead cormorant has been found. The cause of death is being ascertained by personnel from the healthcare enterprise.

http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?do...-eng.oggitalia

[Mellie]

I want to be responsible here, but I feel I need to say something as a stress psychologist, scientist, and human being.

My heart goes out to this distrubed man and his extended family for their loss, as it's gone out to those who have lost their children and family members in Asia, Turkey and Iraq to the H5N1 infection itself. Losses from both direct or indirect effects of H5N1 cause upset in social circles made up of members who love the people who die.

Even if it never moves beyond the current epizootic/panzootic form and the inefficient human-to-human clusters, H5N1 is already having a profound effect on humans. It's affecting economies, communities, groups of people and individuals, some of whom have fewer options for response and fewer resources to respond with than we do.

As John Donne wrote, "No man is an island..."

I thank all who are involved here on flutrackers.com for participating in the process of finding our way through this. Providing information -- from our own reserve of knowledge, skills, and abilities -- and bringing our creative minds to bear to illuminate possible solutions -- for families, for communities and beyond -- well, that's what I think is important.

[viamede]

Italian Authorities Inform of Two Bird Flu Cases

16 February 2006 | 20:32 | FOCUS News Agency
Rome. Italian authorities informed of two new bird flu cases in the country, RIA Novosti informs.
The virus was found in two dead ducks in the southern part of the country.
New tests have to be made which must confirm whether this is case of deadly strain H5N1.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?c...tte=2006-02-16#