EU Convenes Emergency Avian Flu Session

Alarmed by the relentless westward migration of bird flu from Asia, European animal health and food safety experts met in crisis session today to plot containment strategies.

Health experts also met here to discuss plans for coping should the virulent flu strain make the jump from bird to man as many fear.

New cases of bird flu have been identified in poultry from Turkey and Romania. The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed that the Turkish birds were infected with the H5N1 strain.

It's not yet known whether the cases in Romania were caused by the same strain, but it's likely that will turn out to be so, according to the WHO.

The H5N1 strain is easily transmissible among birds, but for the present far less adept at jumping to humans or causing easily transmitted disease in people. Nearly all humans known to have been infected with the H5N1 strain have been in close contact with infected birds, or were close relatives of people who had such contact.

Among 60 people who have died from infection with avian flu, only one was believed to have caught the infection from another person.

Health authorities worldwide are concerned, however, that with a few key mutations the virus could become the source of a global influenza pandemic that would rival the so-called Spanish Flu of 1918-1919, which killed an estimated 675,000 people in the United States and between 20 million and 40 million worldwide.

In both Turkey and Romania, infected poultry were found near flyways for migratory birds; the H5N1 strain has been documented in migratory geese and ducks.

Members of the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health met to discuss means of reducing contact between migratory and domesticated birds in high-risk areas. Avian flu experts also met separately to plot public health responses to possible human exposures to infected animals.

Following discovery of bird flu in Kiziksa, Turkey, located 80 miles southwest of Istanbul, more than 5,000 birds have been slaughtered, reported Mehdi Eker, Turkey's minister of agriculture. In addition, nine people from two families who came into contact with infected pigeons in western Turkey have been hospitalized for observation, according to country's Anatolian news agency.

A local health official reported that there were no signs of illness in the nine people, and that the houses of the two families involved have been disinfected.

The European Commission, which acts to coordinate and implement EU policy, has banned the importation into member countries of poultry products and live birds from Romania and Turkey.

WHO recommended that "travelers to areas experiencing outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 in poultry should avoid contact with live animal markets and poultry farms. Large amounts of the virus are known to be excreted in the droppings from infected birds. Populations in affected countries are advised to avoid contact with dead migratory birds or wild birds showing signs of disease."