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Ukraine records first bird flu case
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-04 10:30
Ukraine recorded its first bird flu outbreak on Saturday, prompting the
president to declare a state of emergency in four Crimean villages where more
than 1,600 chickens and geese have died of the disease.
Official said birds found dead over the past two months in the Black Sea
peninsula tested positive for the H5 subtype.
Bird flu had already been detected in neighboring Romania nearly two months
ago, and Ukrainian officials scrambled to reassure this nation of 47 million
that they were well prepared.
Ukrainians, meanwhile, began debating whether to stop buying poultry 錕斤拷 the
only meat many in this poor nation can afford.
"I don't see any reason for panic, the situation is under control,"
Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Baranivsky told reporters in Kiev after
announcing a two-mile quarantine around the four villages.
Samples were sent to laboratories in Italy and Britain for further tests to
determine whether the disease could be the deadly H5N1 strain, which is being
monitored for fear it could mutate into a form that is easily transferable among
humans.
The results are expected by Thursday, Baranivsky said.
Worldwide attention is focused on the H5N1 strain, which has devastated
poultry stocks in Asia and killed at least 69 people in the region since 2003.
Domestic fowl began dying in Ukraine's Crimean region on Oct. 18, but the
deaths increased significantly last month, rising to 1,621. Positive test
results for the H5 strain came back Saturday, Baranivsky said.
He attributed the bird flu to contact between migratory birds and domestic
fowl at the Crimea's Lake Savash. The peninsula had been seen as an area of
special concern for authorities because it is a landing spot for many migratory
birds.
Under the state-of-emergency ordered by President Viktor Yushchenko, no one
will be allowed to enter or leave the quarantine, and experts will visit every
home to inform residents to count flocks. Officials also prohibited all sales of
domestic fowl and poultry products in the Crimea.
All birds 錕斤拷 even if healthy 錕斤拷 will be slaughtered starting Sunday and their
carcasses burned. Residents will be compensated as much as $2 for each culled
bird, Baranivsky said.
The state of emergency also sets up a larger six-mile zone that will be put
under close monitoring.
"The main thing is for people to understand that all measures are being taken
for their benefit and are not aimed against them," Yushchenko said on
television.
Olha Rohatyna, 58, who lives in one of the infected villages and keeps about
30 birds, told The Associated Press by telephone that she knew little about the
situation except for what she had seen on television.
"But we are not scared. The main thing is that everyone is alive," she said.
Rohatyna said she knew birds were dying in large numbers in another part of
her village, which stretches about four miles.
"It's a frightening, lightning-fast form (of the virus)," Maria
Trukhanovskaya, chief veterinary official of the Crimea region, said in
televised comments.
Ukraine began preparing for bird flu when the virus turned up in neighboring
Romania and Turkey, located across the Black Sea. The country ordered bird farms
into a lockdown and demanded that all domestic fowl be kept inside.
Natasha Kosyleva, a 25-year-old shopping in downtown Kiev, said she was
concerned that people will sell infected birds at small outside markets. Her
parents live in the Crimean city of Yalta.
"We have many small poultry farms in Crimea and for our poor people, it is
the only source to earn money to feed their families," she said. "I heard this
awful news on TV and immediately called my parents to ask them not to eat
poultry."
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