The European Union's animal health laboratory at UK has officially confirmed the cause of three dead swans found in Bulgaria to be due to the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu. It has said that it has confirmed it from the country's agriculture and forestry ministry. Swans found at the Durankulak Lake in the Varna region and at Burgas beach have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 virus. The government has taken necessary steps by completely cordoning it off from the public. An area of 3km to 10 km away from the sites where the dead fowl were discovered was a prohibited site for the public. This is mainly done to temporarily disinfect the area.
But the Health Minister Radoslav Gaidarski has asked the people not to panic because there are no registered cases of human-infected avian flu in Bulgaria. He said that they have installed a monitoring system which is very effective in detecting bird flu in fowl and humans. Gaidarski added that it provided full and timely information on the country's situation in terms of the disease.The minister also urged people to be very careful and not trust any information that had not yet been confirmed by the government. In case of humans four people shows similar signs of the disease but test reports come out to be negative. But a young woman died after showing symptoms of bird flu. Bulgaria's first bird flu case was reported in early February. This deadly virus has so far killed tens of millions of birds and about 90 deaths, in humans mostly in Asia.
