Germany: bird flu reappeared
A swan found dead in Dresden zoo in eastern Germany was infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, the first such case in the country in nearly three months, local authorities said Thursday.
The Saxon state health ministry said all birds at the zoo had been confined as a precaution following confirmation of the virus in the swan and a ban put on dogs and cats being allowed to stray in a 10-kilometre (six-mile) radius.
Last February Germany suffered an outbreak of H5N1, which can be fatal to humans, of avian flu among wild birds, and in April the virus was detected among domestic fowl.
It also spread to mammals, infecting three cats and a stone marten -- a member of the weasel family -- on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen.
But the last case reported in a migratory bird before the latest infection was on May 12 in Bavaria, in the south of the country.
Last month the German parliament extended to next February a lock-up order in force for domestic poultry in areas with a high risk of bird flu.
Bird flu has claimed 133 lives worldwide since 2003, according to the World Health Organisation, mainly in southeast Asia.
The H5N1 strain of the virus can spread from birds to people in close proximity, and experts fear it will mutate to pass on the infection from person to person, with potentially disastrous effects.