Albania confirms its first case of H5N1 bird flu

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2006

TIRANA (AFP) — Albania said the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 bird flu had been detected in a chicken in the country's south, confirming the Balkan state's first case of the strain of the virus that can kill humans.

"On the basis of the results of tests carried out by the (European reference) laboratory in Weybridge (Britain), it is the H5N1 virus," Albanian Agriculture Minister Jemin Gjana told AFP.

The H5N1 virus was discovered in a domestic chicken found dead on February 28 in the village of Cukes, near Saranda, a coastal town about 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of the Greek border.

Health authorities had begun an operation to disinfect the area, around which a three-kilometre (two-mile) quarantine zone had been established in a bid to prevent the...