International Egg and Poultry Review: Romania
By the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - This is a weekly report looking at international developments concerning the poultry industry, this week looking at Avian Influenza in Romania.
Avian Influenza in Romania
Romania's first outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)
since 1942 was reported on October 7, 2005 by the Institute of Diagnostics
and Animal Health, a national reference laboratory, and confirmed
on October 16 to be H5N1 by VLA Weybridge, an OIE reference
laboratory in the United Kingdom, for both duck and chicken samples
tested. All 100 birds (58 laying hens and 42 ducks) on a single backyard
farm located in the village of Ceamurlia-de-Jos of Tulcea County
were destroyed. Control measures were taken (stamping out procedures,
movement restrictions, screening, zoning, the disinfection of
infected premises, and dipping and spraying practices.) A 3-km radius
protection zone and a 10-km radius surveillance zone was established
and a count of backyard premises and all poultry species susceptible
was taken in each zone. By the morning of October 13, 2005, a total of
4,797 birds (4,009 hens, 318 ducks, 238 geese, and 232 turkey hens)
from 72 backyard premises of the 420 tallied in Ceamurlia-de-Jos
were destroyed and incinerated.
On October 14, another outbreak of HPAI was reported by the Institute
for Diagnostics and Animal Health in the village Maliuc (537 swans)
and on a backyard farm near Vulturu (46 hens and 2 turkey hens)
located in Tulcea County. Tests from VLA Weybridge came back positive
for H5N1 on October 16 for both the swan and chicken fluids tested.
As of October 20, stamping out activities in Maliuc and Vulturu had
been completed and a total of 3,562 domestic poultry had been destroyed;
the outbreak in Ceamurlia-de-Jos was eradicated and a total
of 18,626 domestic poultry were culled and incinerated.
On October 21, the avian influenza virus was detected in a heron found
dead in an unpopulated area about 700 m from Prut River, close to the
Moldavia border and about 50-km north of Scarlatesti, Romania. The
virus found was later confirmed to be H5N1 subtype. Another case of
H5N1 was confirmed in 2 geese and a swan, thought to have belonged
to a flock of migratory birds, found dead about 1-km from the River
Danube, close to Vadu-Oii locality on November 1.
On November 15, HPAI H5N1 was confirmed on some farms near
Caraorman in Tulcea County. All 39 laying hens, 13 geese, 10 ducks
and 2 turkeys were destroyed and incinerated. Control measures such
as stamping out, quarantine and movement restrictions were established,
and disinfection procedures were taken. In regards to
Ceamurlia-de-Jos in Tulcea County, quarantine measures were lifted
November 11 and the outbreak was declared extinguished November
21. Quarantine measures were also lifted and the area declared eradicated
November 21 in Maliuc and Vulturu of Tulcea County. As of November
22, only a single outbreak remained in Romania in the
Caraorman of Tulcea County.
On November 23, the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain
and Animal Health announced adjustments to import bans and
biosecurity requirements placed on Croatia, Turkey, Romania, and Russia.
For Croatia, the import ban will only apply to the counties of Viroviticko-
Podravska and Osjecko-Baranjska, while for Turkey the ban on imports
of feathers will be limited to the province of Balkesir. With regards
to Romania, the restrictions on EU imports of live poultry will continue
to apply to the whole country, but the ban on poultry meat and poultry
meat products will be regionalized to cover the counties of Tulcea,
Constanta, Galati, Braila, Ialomita, and Calarasi. In relation to Russia,
the measures applicable until December 31 have been extended until
March 31, 2006, while at the same time restrictions have been adapted
for non-affected regions: Arkhangel'sk Oblast, Kaliningrad Oblast,
Karelia Republic, Komi Republic, Kostroma Oblast, Murmansk Oblast,
Nenetsk Autonomosu District, Novgorod Oblast, Pskov Oblast, Saint
Petersburg, Smolensk Oblast, Leningrad Oblast, Tver Oblast, Vologda
Oblast, and Yarolsal Oblast.
Another outbreak of HPAI was reported in Scarlatesti on November 27,
2005. The area was quarantined after a turkey tested positive for subtype
H5. Further tests are being conducted in Britain to determine if the
virus is H5N1. In the meantime, all domestic birds (about 15,000) were
to be culled and the area disinfected. On November 28, Romania fired
two of its chief veterinarians from Braila County for mishandling the
culling operation, as a television station showed junior veterinarians
throwing live birds into an open fire during the culling campaign.
Recently, the H5 virus was found in Periprava of Tulcea County, and in
Bumbacari, Dudescu, and Ciocile of Braila County as of late last week.
Further tests are in order and the area has been quarantined, birds
culled and incinerated, and the residents vaccinated. So far no cases
have been reported in humans.
A new veterinary regulation was recently approved by the Romanian
Government and is set to become effective December 19, 2005. The
new regulation will limit imports of US red meat as only EU approved
red meat processing plants would be eligible to export for which there
are only a few US processors approved for export. However this new
regulation does not apply to live poultry and poultry meat. On the other
hand another new regulation effective December 19, 2005 describing
procedures for heat-treatment processing applied to meat and meat
products found positive with Salmonella bacteria would apply to all red
meat and poultry alike (see FAS Report RO5015.)
Source: OIE/Promed/European Commission Press Release/USDA FAS/
News Wires
To view the full report, including tables please click here (PDF Format)
Source: USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - 6th December 2005