News - Romania Spots First Flu Case in Domestic Bird Outside Delta

Romanian authorities quarantined the first village outside the River Danube delta area and plan to slaughter as many as 15,000 domestic birds there after a turkey hen was reported infected with the H5 bird flu virus.

Health workers will start giving flu shots tomorrow to hundreds of residents in as many as 400 households in the eastern village of Scarlatesti in Braila county, the Agriculture Ministry said today in an e-mailed statement.

``The killing and incineration of all domestic birds in the village will also start tomorrow,'' the statement said. Measures against the flu are limited to the village as it's three kilometers (about two miles) from any other settlement.

The case in Scarlatesti is the first discovered in a domestic bird outside of the Danube delta through random testing of poultry. Health authorities couldn't immediately confirm whether the case is the H5N1 strain that can infect humans, pending additional laboratory testing.

Bloomberg.com: Europe