MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bird flu cases found in Germany and Scotland

Two new cases of the bird flu virus were reported in Europe yesterday as the death of a boy of 12 in Cambodia and the case of a sick baby girl in Egypt underlined the threat posed to children.

Germany said yesterday tests had shown a form of H5N1 had spread to domestic fowl in the eastern state of Saxony. Meanwhile in Britain, officials reported a case of bird flu in a dead swan in Scotland but said more tests were needed to determine whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain.

In the latest case in Cambodia, a boy from the southeastern province of Prey Veng died on Tuesday night. The World Health Organization confirmed the boy was infected with the H5N1 avian flu virus.

Two Egyptian women have died of bird flu in recent weeks. Egypt said its latest human case was a baby girl from the south of the country whose father raised birds in his home.

"This case was discovered on Tuesday and tests showed it to be positive," Health and Population Minister Hatem el-Gabali said, adding that the girl was in a stable condition after receiving treatment.

Germany said it would start culling to prevent the spread of bird flu after finding it on a farm which houses more than 16,000 turkey, geese and chickens. "This is the first case of H5N1 in domestic fowl (in Germany) and this makes it somewhat explosive,"

Saxony's Minister of Social Affairs, Helma Orosz, told a news conference. "Tonight we will start to kill all the birds."

In Britain, Scottish authorities confirmed the H5 subtype of bird flu in the swan, which was found in Fife, a Scottish county more than 725 km north of London. It was the first H5 case reported in the United Kingdom.

Charles Milne, the chief veterinary officer for Scotland, called the discovery an ??important development'' and imposed a protection zone around the site, which has not been named.

In Europe, experts called for new precautions because cats, and possibly other mammals, can be infected and could spread the virus. Dr Albert Osterhaus, of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, warned that cats may help the virus to adapt into a more highly infectious strain in humans.

Several EU countries, including Germany, have reported cases of avian flu in wild birds, but most have managed to keep it out of domestic flocks. France, in February, was the first EU nation to report an outbreak on a poultry farm.

Fears over the virus have grown in pet-loving Europe after reports that cats had in Germany had become infected. Animals such as dogs, foxes, ferrets and seals may also be vulnerable to infection. They recommended that in high-risk areas cats should not be in contact with birds or their droppings, may need to be kept indoors and should be tested for H5N1 if other animals become sick. Buenos Aires Herald