Greeks find no new bird flu cases
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-18 21:31

ATHENS, Greece - Greek agriculture officials said Tuesday that authorities have not detected any more cases of bird flu following the discovery of an infected turkey on a small Aegean island this week.

Greece banned the export of live birds and poultry meat and products from Aegean Sea islands neighboring the islet of Oinouses, where the country's first bird flu case was detected on Monday, Agriculture Minister Evangelos Bassiakos said. The preventive measure was taken in cooperation with EU officials and will apply to Oinouses, Chios and Psara.

His deputy, Alekos Kontos, said that veterinarians were checking samples taken from around the country but all were negative following the single case of bird flu on a turkey farm in Oinouses.

"We are examining samples from all over Greece," Kontos said. "Except for the sample on Oinouses there are no other positive samples."

Tests are being carried out on the sample taken from the turkey on Oinouses at an EU-approved national reference laboratory in Thessaloniki to confirm initial results that the bird was suffering from the H5 virus. Scientists will know in a week whether the bird was infected with the deadly H5N1 strain.

The Health Ministry announced that a team of inspectors would examine workers for flu symptoms Tuesday at the small, family-run farm at Oinouses — a tiny islet close to the Turkish coast with a population of about 700. Farm workers will be under observation for the next week, the ministry said.

"I can't understand how it could happen," said farm owner Dimitris Komniraris. "The turkeys started looking sick and falling over. Three went missing last Friday and were eaten by stray cats and dogs. Then I saw two more, and I got worried."

Edgy Greeks rushed to pharmacies to buy up vaccines for human strains of flu — which are ineffective against the H5N1 bird flu strain — while state inspectors were called to collect and test 10 pigeons found dead in a downtown Athens district.

Tuesday's newspapers carried extensive coverage of public safety procedures and warned against panic.

"It is a sign of the prevalent confusion that so many people who do not belong to high-risk groups hastened to be vaccinated, resulting in shortages," an editorial in Eleftherotypia daily said.

Ethnos daily's main headline spoke of "Anxiety after the first suspicious case."

The European Commission said Monday that Greece is sending samples from birds on Oinouses to the EU's laboratory in Weybridge, England.

"What we have now is an indication (of the flu)," state veterinarian Giorgos Georgiadis said. "We will next seek flu antibodies, and if the flu virus is present then we will isolate it."

Also Tuesday, Albanian border guards blocked a Greek truck with 2,500 chickens to check for signs of bird flu.

Authorities at the Kakavia crossing, 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the capital, Tirana, have detected no bird flu case but are continuing tests, said agriculture and food official Skender Seferi.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Jemin Gjana said there were no bird flu cases in the country, and appealed to Albanian media not to "amplify the problem."

"We have the situation under control," Gjana told a parliamentary commission Monday.