Facts on the status of bird flu in Europe

The following are facts about the status of bird flu in Europe:

ROMANIA - Further tests are being carried out on a heron with bird flu antibodies found in Vaslui county. Romania has already confirmed the presence of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in its Danube delta region.

RUSSIA - Vets have found H5N1 strain of bird flu in the village of Sunaly in the Chelyabinsk region in southern Urals. Moscow confirmed on Oct. 19 an outbreak of H5N1 in the Tula region, 200 km (125 miles) south of Moscow.

TURKEY - EU said on Oct. 13 Turkey had bird flu type dangerous to humans, the avian flu H5N1 high pathogenic virus.

BRITAIN - A parrot that died in quarantine in Britain has been found to have the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the agriculture ministry said on Sunday. London had already called for blanket EU ban on imports of wild live birds from anywhere in the world.

FRANCE - Stepped up checks at airports and was building stockpiles of vaccines and treatments. Plans to use a red, white and blue chicken logo on home-reared poultry to reassure consumers.

BULGARIA - Banned imports of live birds and poultry products from Turkey, Greece and Romania and stepped up checks at borders and poultry farms.

GERMANY - Confined all poultry to their pens.

CZECH REPUBLIC - Banned all poultry and bird exhibitions and carrier pigeon contests.

GREECE - A case of bird flu was detected in the Aegean island of Chios. Greece has banned poultry exports from the island and awaiting test results on the strain.

MACEDONIA - Sent a dead chicken on Friday for tests in London.

ITALY - Detected a low risk H5N2 avian flu virus in April 2005 and destroyed at least 180,000 turkeys.

SWEDEN - Detected bird flu in a dead duck west of Stockhom and advised farmers to keep birds indoors.

CROATIA - Authorities banned exports to EU countries on finding the H5 avian flu virus in wild dead swans at a fish pond in the east of the country.

Source: Reuters