Finland's Agriculture Ministry said on Saturday Europe was not yet suffering the highly pathogenic strain of bird flu that has killed people in Asia after the country discovered a possible outbreak in seagulls.
"Increased surveillance shows it very clearly, we do not have in Europe the dangerous H5N1 avian influenza affecting Asia at present," Matti Aho, chief veterinary officer of Finland, said in a statement on the ministry's Web site.
"Many different types of low pathogenic influenza viruses are circulating in the wild bird population everywhere around the world, and this finding in Finland demonstrates it once more," he added.
The ministry said on Friday laboratory tests had identified a possible strain of bird flu in sick and dead seagulls found in a park in the northern town of Oulu, but it was not clear how many of them were carrying the disease or how serious a strain of flu it might be. Final test results are due in three weeks, a ministry official said on Friday, and added it was likely that if the birds did suffer from bird flu it was a low pathogenic strand of the virus.
Low-pathogenic bird flu can be found in as many as 30 percent of wild birds, experts say. But monitoring is increasing as fears of a global outbreak grow, with some experts warning it could spread to Europe via migratory birds. "The situation underlines the need to keep our surveillance at a high level and the need to strengthen biosecurity measures at farm level throughout Europe," Aho said in his statement.
The H5N1 strand of the virus has killed more than 60 people in Asia since late 2003 and millions of fowl have been slaughtered.
Health experts fear it could kill millions around the world if it mutated into a form that could spread easily from person to person.
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