Grant McCool
Bird Flu Found at N.Jersey Live Poultry Markets
Thu Feb 12 15:37:06 2004
64.140.158.83

Bird Flu Found at N.Jersey Live Poultry Markets
Thu February 12, 2004 02:10 PM ET
(Page 1 of 2)
By Grant McCool
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=4347948

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bird flu has been found at four live poultry markets in New Jersey towns near New York City, but the discovery was not unusual in the state, a New Jersey official said on Thursday.

Industry officials downplayed the findings, saying the virus has been present for many years in live poultry markets in New York and New Jersey, which sell relatively small numbers of chickens and roosters.

The flu strain involved is not the same as the Asian virus that has killed 19 people and devastated poultry flocks in Asia, the state official said.

But worries about more cases of bird flu sent Chicago Board of Trade soybean prices tumbling. The futures contract for May delivery of beans, a component of chicken feed, was down 12 cents to $8.26-1/2 per bushel in early afternoon trading.

"This is not a remarkable finding," said Richard Lobb, spokesman for the National Chicken Council. "What worries people is when it shows up in a (poultry) producing state. There is no production in New York or New Jersey."

Industry officials said the live poultry markets are known for poor sanitary conditions such as dirty bird cages, allowing the virus to linger and spread. The live markets typically supply poultry for ethnic markets.

A spokeswoman for the New Jersey Agricultural Department said the findings were not unusual in the state, which typically finds bird flu at 40 percent of live poultry markets.

"This is part of our regular testing ... we intermittently find positive cases of the low pathogenic strain of avian influenza," spokeswoman Hope Gruzlovic said. "When we find it, we require the markets to clean and disinfect and then we go in and test again to make sure it is eradicated."

She said the strain was H7N2 and stressed it was not known to be harmful to humans.

The strain was the same one detected in neighboring Delaware, where a total of 84,000 chickens have been killed since Saturday after the virus was found on two farms.

Unlike New Jersey, Delaware is a major commercial producer of chickens for companies such as Tyson Foods Inc. and privately owned Perdue Farms.

hu February 12, 2004 02:10 PM ET
(Page 2 of 2)
In Pennsylvania, the state agriculture department said it could not rule out a possible case of a mild strain of bird flu and was closely monitoring some areas of the state.

"We don't have any positive evidence to release on that right now," Dennis Wolff, the state's agriculture secretary, told Reuters when asked if any cases of the H7 bird flu virus had been found in Pennsylvania.

"Some areas we are watching very closely," Wolff added. He declined to elaborate.

In Washington, a spokesman for the U.S. Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said he had no information about a possible case of bird flu in Pennsylvania.

The National Chicken Council, a trade group representing poultry producers, also said it had no information.

A more serious strain of the virus, H5N1, has been blamed for the deaths in Asia. (Additional reporting by Jon Hurdle in Philadelphia and Randy Fabi in Washington; editing by Dan Grebler; Reuters Messaging: grant.mccool.reuters.com@reuters.net; +1 646-223-6280))

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EU health ministers meet over bird flu epidemic
EU Business, UK - 16 minutes ago
http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/040212183624.9qw0prb3

EU health ministers meet over bird flu epidemic

12 February 2004

European Union health ministers met Thursday to take stock of the EU's response to the bird flu epidemic in Asia, in particular to study stockpiling medicines if the virus mutates into human flu.

The evening talks, which were attended by World Health Organisationchief Lee Jong-Wook, were called at short notice at French insistence to ensure a coordinated response from the EU should the bird flu arrive in Europe.

Irish Health Minister Micheal (ATTN EDS: CORRECT, IRISH SPELLING) Martin, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, echoed the WHO in stressing there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the bird flu virus.

Nineteen people have died in Thailand and Vietnam from the virus, believed to have been contracted through close contact with infected chickens.

"But it is necessary, we believe, for proper coordination to be the order of the day within the European Union in terms of our responses to any human health threat," Martin told reporters before the EU meeting.

"So what we will be concentrating on is the potential threat to human health arising from the situation," he said.

The UN health body said Thursday that suspicions that bird flu had been transmitted among humans in Vietnam were unfounded, easing fears the virus could unleash a global pandemic.

But the toll from the disease, which has hit 10 Asian nations in total, continued to mount with Thailand announcing a sixth person had been infected.

The EU has banned chicken imports from Thailand, the only Asian country to export poultry to the bloc.

Martin said the EU ministers would look at a range of human-health issues and "engaging with the pharmaceutical industry is a critical one in terms of anti-virals and vaccines going forward".

The WHO is estimated to be four to six months away from developing a human vaccine against the bird flu, Ireland's deputy chief medical officer Eibhlin Connolly said.

"Above all (we want to) get some coordination in how we approach this and keep reassuring the public that every public health step that is realistic and effective is being taken," Martin said.
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