Austrian authorities have found the H5N1 bird flu virus in a chicken in an animal sanctuary in the southern Austrian city of Graz, a health ministry spokeswoman said today.
The chicken had been kept in the same cage as a swan brought to the sanctuary from the area previously hit by the virus, violating regulations imposed after the first occurrence of the virus in Austria, the spokeswoman said.
Commercial poultry stock was not affected, she added however, case marks the first occurance of avian flu in a domestic bird in the European Union.
Earlier today in Brussels, EU animal health experts considered requests from France and the Netherlands, Europe's biggest poultry producers, to be allowed to vaccinate millions of birds against avian influenza. Talks on the request are continuing.
Bird flu has killed more than 90 people since 2003. Despite its rapid march around the globe, it remains hard for people to catch. But if it mutates, a pandemic could bring economic chaos and overwhelm health services.
Migratory birds are thought to be at least one way the disease is being carried and more than 30 countries have reported cases since 2003, seven of them recording human infections.
In Indonesia, where the virus is endemic in poultry, a Health Ministry official said a 27-year-old woman who lived in the capital had died of bird flu, according to local hospital tests. If confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the woman would be the 20th Indonesian to die from avian flu.
Hungary said yesterday that tests showed the virus in three dead swans found last week, while Croatia also confirmed H5N1 had been found in a dead swan on an island in the Adriatic.
Today Malaysia took its search for birds stricken with avian flu to the heart of its capital as speculation grew that smuggled fighting cocks could have brought the virus into the country.
Indian health workers wearing blue overalls, anti-viral masks and goggles have so far culled about 400,000 birds in Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital.
But a report in the Timesof India newspaper said the culling process suffered from defects because many birds, buried alive in shallow pits, were re-emerging. State health director TP Doke denied knowledge of the chickens being buried alive.
In Europe, officials urged people to carry on eating poultry meat after a string of outbreaks in birds. The WHO says thoroughly cooked poultry meat and eggs are safe to eat but that assurance has failed to calm consumers in many countries.