Agora

B.T., Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Dead swans on Sealand too

150 citizens have reported finding dead birds since Wednesday, primarily swans, Director of Emergency Services Svend Johansen reports to TV2 Øst.

Dead swans have now been found on Falster, Lolland, and Sealand.

On Falster, four dead swans have been found on Hasselø. On Lolland a dead swan was found Tuesday near the bathing resort Lalandia. It has been brough to the veterinary clinic in Maribo. Around Kalvehave on southern Sealand a swan is on the ice 50 meters from shore which has not yet been retrieved.

The Agency for Food Safety is coordinating the counting and examination of the swans. It is yet unknown whether the many dead swans have died from the bird flu or from natural causes.

The authorities won’t be able to say for sure whether bird flu is the cause of death before Friday at the earliest, says Director of Emergency Services Svend Johansen to TV2 Øst.

Early wednesday two swans found dead on Rügen, 40 kilometers south of Falster, were confirmed to have died from bird flue H5N1.

Update: Dead swans in Northern Jutland

Update: Dead swans on Bornholm

Jyllands-Posten, February 15, 2006

Last doubts about bird flu in German swans dispelled

Further tests reveal that the two swans found dead on the German island Rügen were infected with H5N1.

Thus all doubts have been dispelled as to whether the two swans were indeed infected, says Reinhard Kurth, the leader of the Robert Koch Institute which is the center for disease control in Germany.

Unfortunately it has been confirmed that the Swans were infected with the H5N1 strain from Asia, said Kurth on German TV.