Bird flu Czech Republic - Officials reported today the first case of H5 bird flu in the Czech Republic. Czech Republic State Veterinary Administration (SVU) Director Milan Malena said a wild swan found dead in the south-central part of the country tested positive for the disease last week. The H5 virus was found in a dead wild swan about 100 miles south of Prague. Tests from the bird were being sent to a European Commission bird flu laboratory in Weybridge for more tests to check for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. For European Commission, bird flu (avian influenza H5) suspected in a dead wild swan in Czech Republic and Czech authorities applying precautionary measures.

Bird flu case reported in Czech Republic for first time

The authorities of the Czech Republic today informed the European Commission of a suspected case of the bird flu virus H5 in a dead wild swan detected in Hluboka Nad Vltavou, 150 km South of Prague. It is not yet known if the virus is high pathogenic or low pathogenic H5 and tests are ongoing. Samples will be sent to the Community Reference Laboratory for avian influenza in Weybridge for further tests to determine if this is the H5N1 strain of the virus found in Asia.

The Czech authorities have informed the European Commission that they will apply immediately the precautionary measures set out in Commission Decision 2006/115 on certain protection measures in relation to highly pathogenic bird flu in wild birds in the Community. The Decision sets out the measures to be applied in any Member State of the European Union which detects a case of bird flu H5 in wild birds which is suspected or confirmed to be the highly pathogenic bird flu H5N1 virus.

The measures consist of the establishment of a high risk area (a 3 km protection zone) around the outbreak and a surrounding surveillance zone of 10 km (which includes the protection zone). In the protection zone, poultry must be kept indoors, movement of poultry is banned except directly to the slaughterhouse and the dispatch of meat outside the zone is forbidden except where products have undergone the controls provided for in EU food controls legislation (i.e meat sourced from healthy animals in registered farms, subject to ante and post mortem checks by vets in the slaughterhouse). In both the protection zone and the surveillance zone, on-farm biosecurity measures must be strengthened, hunting of wild birds is banned and disease awareness of poultry owners and their families must be carried out.

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