July 10, 2007
The state of Virginia has suspended all sales of live poultry after the discovery of suspected avian flu germs in a flock of Virginia turkeys. The ban will remain in effect through the rest of this month.
As scary as it sounds, state health officials say its a danger to the poultry industry but not to humans.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture said the strain of antibodies discovered in the flock of 54,000 turkeys in Shenandoah County, Virginia does not pose a health risk to humans.
The state has also banned the transfer and application of poultry droppings in 17 counties. Droppings, which could carry and spread the antibodies, are often used as fertilizer.
In Indonesia, the death of a six-year-old boy brought that country's world-leading death toll from the H5N1 avian influenza virus to 81.
The Indonesian government, responding to a spike in new cases, declared a ban on backyard poultry farms in residential areas of nine provinces. It also placed tight restrictions on the movement and sale of poultry and poultry products across the nine provinces, and is preparing more hospitals to treat human cases of the virus.
Most bird flu victims have had direct or indirect contact with sick birds, but scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that would be easily spread among humans, sparking a global pandemic that could kill millions.
Meanwhile, Egypt, the country hardest hit by bird flu outside Asia, has banned all poultry imports from France and Germany after the H5N1 strain was discovered in birds there.
Egypt took the step after positive H5N1 test results last week on three swans in France and 38 birds in Germany.
