RPT-Czechs report bird flu in poultry at second farm

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By Marek Petrus

PRAGUE, June 27 (Reuters) - The Czech Republic reported a second outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm and detected the virus in a dead swan on Wednesday, about a week after the country's found the deadly form of the virus in poultry.

Russia and Ukraine banned poultry imports from the Czech Republic this week after the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu was confirmed at a turkey farm in the eastern part of the country, but supermarkets noticed no impact on local poultry sales.

The Farm Ministry said the second farm in the village of Norin was inside the surveillance zone just 4 km (2.5 miles) from the first one. Both are run by the same cooperative.

Bird flu was also found in a swan in the Lednice wetland area in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic. Neighbouring Germany has identified nine cases of the H5N1 strain of the virus in wild birds.

Czech veterinary officials said tests were expected to show by Friday if the poultry at the second farm and the swan also had the H5N1 virus that can also be deadly to humans.

Two of the largest Czech supermarket chain by sales, Britain's Tesco Plc and German-based Globus, both said consumers have showed no sign of shunning poultry yet.

"A big wave (of a drop in sales) occured last year. Consumers do not react to the news now," said Jana Matouskova, spokeswoman for Tesco Stores Czech Republic.

Czech output stagnated at 320,000 tonnes of poultry in 2006 on consumer concerns over the spread of the infection within the European Union. Exports rose by nearly 10 percent to 40,000 tonnes last year, according to the farm ministry's statistics.

NORMAL

Last year, some 13 European Union member states had confirmed cases of bird flu -- Germany, Austria, Denmark, Italy, Greece, Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, France and Hungary.

An official at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said further outbreaks of the virus could have been expected in the Czech Republic after the first case.

"In the Czech Republic they seem to have a very good system of surveillance and response. So a second outbreak a week after the first one can be considered completely normal," Joseph Domenech, chief veterinary officer at the FAO, told Reuters at a bird flu conference at FAO headquarters in Rome.

All 28,000 birds at the Czech Norin farm, about 150 km (94 miles) east of the capital Prague, as well as more than 300 birds bred by the local smallholders would be culled within 24 hours.

"The birds will be culled tomorrow so that the source of the infection is liquidated," Josef Bohac, head of the regional veterinary authority, told a news briefing.

Bird flu has been spreading across southeast Asia, killing two people in Vietnam this month, the first deaths there since 2005.

Globally, the H5N1 virus has killed nearly 200 people out of over 300 known cases, according to the World Health Organisation. None of the victims were from Europe.

- Additional reporting by Robin Pomeroy in Rome and Petra Vodstrcilova in Prague.

Keywords: BIRDFLU CZECH/