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Greeks find no new bird flu cases
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-18 21:31
ATHENS, Greece - Greek agriculture officials said Tuesday that authorities
have not detected any more cases of bird flu following the discovery of an
infected turkey on a small Aegean island this week.
Greece banned the export of live birds and poultry meat and products from
Aegean Sea islands neighboring the islet of Oinouses, where the country's first
bird flu case was detected on Monday, Agriculture Minister Evangelos Bassiakos
said. The preventive measure was taken in cooperation with EU officials and will
apply to Oinouses, Chios and Psara.
His deputy, Alekos Kontos, said that veterinarians were checking samples
taken from around the country but all were negative following the single case of
bird flu on a turkey farm in Oinouses.
"We are examining samples from all over Greece," Kontos said. "Except for the
sample on Oinouses there are no other positive samples."
Tests are being carried out on the sample taken from the turkey on Oinouses
at an EU-approved national reference laboratory in Thessaloniki to confirm
initial results that the bird was suffering from the H5 virus. Scientists will
know in a week whether the bird was infected with the deadly H5N1 strain.
The Health Ministry announced that a team of inspectors would examine workers
for flu symptoms Tuesday at the small, family-run farm at Oinouses — a tiny
islet close to the Turkish coast with a population of about 700. Farm workers
will be under observation for the next week, the ministry said.
"I can't understand how it could happen," said farm owner Dimitris
Komniraris. "The turkeys started looking sick and falling over. Three went
missing last Friday and were eaten by stray cats and dogs. Then I saw two more,
and I got worried."
Edgy Greeks rushed to pharmacies to buy up vaccines for human strains of flu
— which are ineffective against the H5N1 bird flu strain — while state
inspectors were called to collect and test 10 pigeons found dead in a downtown
Athens district.
Tuesday's newspapers carried extensive coverage of public safety procedures
and warned against panic.
"It is a sign of the prevalent confusion that so many people who do not
belong to high-risk groups hastened to be vaccinated, resulting in shortages,"
an editorial in Eleftherotypia daily said.
Ethnos daily's main headline spoke of "Anxiety after the first suspicious
case."
The European Commission said Monday that Greece is sending samples from birds
on Oinouses to the EU's laboratory in Weybridge, England.
"What we have now is an indication (of the flu)," state veterinarian Giorgos
Georgiadis said. "We will next seek flu antibodies, and if the flu virus is
present then we will isolate it."
Also Tuesday, Albanian border guards blocked a Greek truck with 2,500
chickens to check for signs of bird flu.
Authorities at the Kakavia crossing, 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the
capital, Tirana, have detected no bird flu case but are continuing tests, said
agriculture and food official Skender Seferi.
Minister of Agriculture and Food Jemin Gjana said there were no bird flu
cases in the country, and appealed to Albanian media not to "amplify the
problem."
"We have the situation under control," Gjana told a parliamentary commission
Monday.
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