October 19, 2005
BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania said on Wednesday it was testing dozens more waterfowl found dead in the Danube delta, where an outbreak of bird flu last week was confirmed as the variant of the disease potentially dangerous to humans.
"We have a number of dead birds on which we took samples for testing," Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur told reporters.
He said that in the past 24 hours 15 dead swans had been found in Popina , 30 in Obretinul Mic and four ducks in Caraorman , all villages in the delta, which lies close to the border with Ukraine .
British tests showed last week that the H5N1 strain of the disease, which has killed more than 60 people and millions of birds in Asia since 2003, had reached mainland Europe , occurring in ducks found dead in the Romanian village of Ceamurlia de Jos .
Experts fear the virus could mutate and spread among humans, creating a pandemic that might kill millions of people.
On Tuesday, Bucharest said it had found bird flu antibodies in several new cases of bird deaths in the delta, which is Europe 's largest wetlands .
Flutur said scientists had found no further confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, but investigations were continuing. If Romania finds antibodies of an H5 type it sends samples to Britain to determine whether the virus is the deadly H5N1.
The Danube delta is a major way station for migratory wild birds heading from Asia towards winter habitats in North Africa .
Flutur also said a number of pigeons had been found dead in the capital Bucharest but bird flu tests had proved negative, as had tests on several hundred heads of poultry that had died in other parts of the country.
All 21,000 domestic birds in Ceamurlia de Jos and Maliuc , the two delta villages where the outbreak started, have been slaughtered.
Flutur said results of tests by Britain 's Weybridge laboratory to determine whether birds found dead in Maliuc a week ago carried the H5N1 strain might be released later on Wednesday.
He also said experts from Romania , Ukraine and Moldova would meet in the Ukrainian city of Odessa on Thursday to find ways to boost regional cooperation to fight the disease.