Germany's bird flu cases rise to 103
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-22 09:25

The number of cases of H5N1 bird flu in Germany have risen to 103 as officials warned that there was a growing risk of the disease spreading to poultry farms.

German soldiers in special suits walk out to collect dead birds in a field on the Island Ummanz, next to the northern island of Ruegen, as officials warned bird flu could soon reach poultry farms on the mainland. [AFP]

The veterinary institute at Riems said the 22 new cases concerned wild birds found on the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, where the bird flu outbreak began last week.

On Monday, the government confirmed that the disease had spread to the mainland after the H5N1 strain of the flu which is potentially fatal to humans was detected in two dead birds in the northeast state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The agriculture minister of the state, Till Backhaus, said late Monday that he believed there was now a growing risk of H5N1 spreading to the country's poultry farms.

"We do not have this in hand," he said.

Two districts in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have declared a state of emergency, a measure which allows the army to be deployed if needed, in a bid to facilitate the fight against the disease.

And on Ruegen poultry farmers have slaughtered 2,463 birds since Sunday in a preventative step.

A virologist from Halle-Wittenberg University, Alexander Kekule, said on Tuesday it was certain that for the moment the virus would continue to spread through Germany.

"It will be a near miracle if we manage to contain the disease among wild birds in the coming days and weeks," he told the Ruhr Nachrichten newspaper.

Germany last week began enforcing an order to keep all poultry indoors, joining The Netherlands, Slovenia, Denmark, France, Greece, Luxembourg and Sweden.