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Greece acts to protect on bird flu

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OINOUSES, Greece -- Greek authorities have begun the systematic disinfection Wednesday of a farm on a remote Aegean Sea island where a lone turkey was found to be infected with a strain of bird flu.

Meanwhile, a U.N. agency warned that the risk of bird flu spreading to the Middle East and Africa has markedly increased following the confirmation of outbreaks in Romania and Turkey.

Tests on the Greek bird are being carried out at the European Union's laboratory in Weybridge, England, to determine if it was infected with the H5N1 strain, which has destroyed flocks and killed 60 people in Asia since 2003.

The sample was sent to Britain late Tuesday and the full results are expected to be ready in about a week, though an announcement could come sooner.

Health Minister Nikitas Kaklamanis visited doctors and residents of Oinouses, a tiny island of about 500 residents located next to Chios and just off the coast of Turkey.

A team of five experts clad in protective clothing began Wednesday disinfecting a small farm where owner Dimitris Komninaris last week discovered that some of his 20 turkeys were sick. Komninaris was raising the turkeys for his family's personal consumption.

Late on Tuesday, Bulgaria banned the imports of live fowl, poultry products and eggs from Greece, as well as the transit transportation of poultry loads that have passed through the territories of Turkey, Greece, and Romania. A ban on poultry imports from Turkey and Romania was introduced October 10.

Greece has banned the export of live birds and poultry products from Aegean Sea islands neighboring Oinouses, and said it would keep the measures in force until the results from the British laboratory were known.

Union foreign ministers on Tuesday declared the spread of bird flu from Asia into Europe a "global threat" requiring international action. (Full story)

The meeting issued a statement saying bird flu posed a serious, global health threat if it shifted from birds to humans and one that required "a coordinated international reaction."

European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou told reporters that because the flu may be carried by migratory birds, other European countries could experience outbreaks.

He warned that the 25 EU member countries do not have enough anti-viral drugs on hand to fight a human pandemic.

The World Health Organization recommends that governments hold in reserve sufficient anti-viral drugs to treat 25 per cent of their populations. Kyprianou said "more than half" of the EU countries are not yet prepared.

EU ministers met as 12 new cases of bird flu were discovered in Romania.(Full story)

And samples from a dead bird were sent from Macedonia to London for testing after a large number of birds died in the city of Bitola near the border with Greece, a member of Macedonia's parliament said Tuesday.

Gorgi Orovcanec, who is also former minister of health, said that while "many" birds died only one was suspected of having "some kind of disease."

A U.N. agency warned Wednesday that the risk of bird flu spreading to the Middle East and Africa has markedly increased following the confirmation of outbreaks in Romania and Turkey.

"One of our major concerns is now the potential spread of avian influenza through migratory birds to northern and eastern Africa," Joseph Domenech, Chief Veterinary Officer at the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said in a statement.

"There is a serious risk that this scenario may become a reality," he said. The statement also mentioned the increased risk that bird flu could spread to the Middle East.

Swiss drug maker Roche, pressed to raise output of antiviral flu drug Tamiflu, said it would consider allowing rival firms and governments to produce it under licence for emergency pandemic use. A Dutch company said it was working on a vaccine.

Besides the human danger, countries visited by bird flu in its various forms can face face grave economic losses. The milder H5N7 strain struck the Netherlands in 2003, prompting slaughter of 30 million birds and losses estimated at 500 million euros.

CNN Producer Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report