Mar 6, 2006, 19:03 GMT
Austria said Monday the H5N1 bird flu virus had been found in infected cats in the south-eastern province of Styria, while Poland and Serbia on Monday both confirmed the presence of the deadly bird flu strain in wild swans.
Policemen in protective suits block off an area of the Vistula river in Torun, Poland, on Sunday, 05 March 2006. Polish Agricultural Minister Krzysztof Jurgiel confirmed Sunday that two dead swans, which had been found in Torun on Friday, were infected with the H5 strain of bird flu virus. EPA/WOJTEK SZABELSKI
In Austria, a statement from the office of Styria's governor for agriculture, Hans Seitinger, said there had been 'two or three' positive results of tests on cats, and that the animals were still alive.
The report came a week after a dead cat discovered on the German North Sea island of Ruegen was found to be infected with bird flu in the first confirmed case in Europe of a mammal contracting the disease.
Cat owners in high-risk areas in Germany have been ordered to keep their cats indoors, but in Austria, the president of the Federal Veterinary Chamber, Walter Holzhacker, said he saw no great danger.
'If no waterfowl are in the area, there's no danger to cats. A transmission (of the virus) from a cat to a human being has not been observed anywhere yet,' he said last week.
Meanwhile in Poland, the State Veterinary Institute in Pulawy confirmed that the bird flu found in two dead wild swans in the central city of Torun was the H5N1 strain.
On Monday, a third dead swan found on the banks of the Vistula river, where the two H5N1-infected birds were found, also tested positive for bird flu. Further tests were being conducted to check for H5N1.
Plans were afoot to test pigeons, chickens, ducks and geese on 33 farms in the area for H5N1, officials said.
Serbia on Monday also announced the discovery of H5N1 bird flu in two deads swans found in the north and west of the country.
One of the cases was discovered in a dead swan in Backi Monostor, northern Serbia, while the other was discovered on the Drina River in western Serbia.
Elsewhere across Europe, the situation with regard to bird flu on Monday was as follows:
-- GERMANY: The discovery of a dead wild goose in Germany's Lower Saxony state at the weekend - that state's first confirmed case of avian flu - has alarmed farmers in the area which is home to some 22,000 poultry production facilities.
Germany has so far confirmed 158 cases of bird flu in six of the country's 16 federal states.
A total of 135 cases of the deadly H5N1 virus have been found in the Baltic Sea state of Mecklenburg-West Pommerania, including a case on the island of Ruegen which a dead cat was found to have been infected.
-- FRANCE: As of Monday, France remained the only European country in which the H5N1 bird flu virus had been detected on a commercial poultry farm.
The discovery, on a farm in the eastern departement, or region, of Ain, has taken a heavy toll on the French poultry industry. As of Monday, 46 countries, all outside the European Union, had either limited or banned outright the importation of French poultry products.
On Sunday, French health authorities announced that the H5N1 virus had appeared in a second departement when a wild swan found dead near the Mediterranean coast was discovered to be carrying the pathogen.
-- ITALY: Italy, along with Greece, was the first country in the European Union to detect bird flu on home soil.
Since the discovery of H5N1 bird flu in several swans in southern Italy, the virus has been detected in a total of 19 wild birds - out of 42 suspect cases, according to latest figures supplied Monday by Italy's Health Ministry.
Though the virus has not spread to domestic poultry, chicken consumption has plunged by an estimated 70 per cent since the disease was first detected, leading to an estimated 30,000 jobs lost in the poultry industry.
-- SWEDEN: Swedish veterinary authorities said Monday that two dead tufted ducks found last month near the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant on Sweden's south-eastern Baltic coast were 'no doubt carrying the H5N1 virus strains.'
Formal confirmation was expected from the European Union reference laboratory in England at the end of the week.
The National Veterinary Institute was also waiting for further test results from eight other tufted ducks (Aythya fuligula) found in or near the 10-kilometre cordon zone that surrounds the three- kilometre no-go zone.
-- SLOVAKIA: The virus was confirmed in two wild birds - a falcon and a grebe - discovered last month in the Danube River valley.
Czech and Slovak poultry producers say consumer fears of bird flu has caused prices for chicken meat to plummet in the past month. <!--page-->
-- HUNGARY: Hungary has recorded 12 cases of bird flu, seven of which have been confirmed as H5N1 cases, mostly in dead swans but also in a wild duck and a seagull.
The animals were found in small villages just outside Budapest and in the south of the country in the region of Nagybaracska.
-- SLOVENIA: Several cases of bird flu have been found in dead swans in Slovenia over the past month, with at least one testing positive for the H5N1 strain.
H5N1 is an avian influenza virus subtype. The H5N1 flu, commonly known as 'bird flu' or 'avian influenza' is a viral disease that can infect several species including humans.
Although it is not known to transmit between humans, researchers admit H5N1 may mutate into such a form, sparking a human pandemic.
Bird flu infected at least 33 people in the first two months of this year, killing 20 of them, according to the World Health Organization in Geneva.
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