Germany considering measures to prevent bird flu
GERMANY - Germany is considering special measures to prevent bird flu entering the country, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Minister Renate Kuenast said on Thursday.
The German government would assume the worst, although there was still no conclusive information about the precise type of virus spreading in Central Asia and whether it was dangerous to humans, she said on German television ZDF.
Russia said on Tuesday that an outbreak of bird flu in its Ural region was dangerous to humans.
A group of German experts under the leadership of Kuenast's ministry will meet on Thursday to consider possible preventative measures to prevent the disease breaking out in Germany.
This could include temporary restrictions on keeping poultry in open fields to prevent contact with migrating wild birds.
German border control officials had already been instructed to intensify checks to prevent birds being brought in.
Meanwhile, the head of Germany's main independent health body, the Robert Koch institute, said the country must be prepared for arrival of individual birds from Russia.
German authorities should vastly increase stocks of human influenza vaccines to prepare for a possible flu epidemic if the disease is transferred to humans, Reinhard Kurth said in a press interview.
Source: Reuters - 18th August 2005