Scientists were conducting tests Saturday to determine whether cases of avian flu discovered in Britain and Croatia were the lethal strain that has killed more than 60 people, as countries around the world scrambled to halt the spread of the virus.
Congo joined a growing list of African countries to ban imports of livestock and poultry from countries affected by bird flu, and Russia recorded a new outbreak of the disease in a region of the Ural mountains.
In Croatia, the Agriculture Ministry said the country's first cases of avian flu were confirmed Friday in six swans found dead in a national park in the east of the country. British officials said a parrot from the South American country of Suriname had died of the disease while in quarantine. It was Britain's first confirmed case of bird flu since 1992.
In both cases, tests were underway at a British lab to determine whether the birds had the deadly H5N1 strain, which has devastated poultry stocks across Asia and killed 61 people in the last two years. The strain has recently been found in birds in Russia, Turkey and Romania.
H5N1 is easily transmitted between birds, but is hard for humans to contract. Experts are closely watching the disease, however, for fear it could mutate into a form easily transmitted between humans and cause a pandemic that could kill millions.
In Croatia, Minister of Agriculture Petar Cobankovic said "there is no room for panic" in the wake of the country confirming its first cases of bird flu, in wild migratory swans.
The European Union, which has ordered restrictions on bird markets and shows and urged nations to present a program of vaccination for zoo birds, said Friday it was preparing to ban poultry imports from Croatia.
In Britain, the chief veterinarian, Debby Reynolds, said the country's disease-free status was not affected by the case of bird flu there, because the parrot had died while in quarantine. She said the incident demonstrated the importance of Britain's tough quarantine system.
Reynolds said the parrot, which died earlier this week, had arrived in Britain in September and was being held in a biosecure quarantine unit alongside a consignment of birds from Taiwan.
In related developments:
Dr. Thawat Suntrajarn, director-general of the Department of Communicable Disease Control, said the 48-year-old father and his 7-year-old son became ill after handling their neighbor's sick chickens. The father died; the son is recovering.CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reports on scams that are trying to take advantage of bird flu fears. Congo's Health Minister, Emil Bongeli, said late Friday that his government had banned the import of live birds, pigs and livestock from countries affected by H5N1. Other African countries have also banned poultry imports, including Senegal, Uganda and neighboring Republic of Congo. African countries fear migrating birds traveling from Eastern Europe and Asia in the coming winter months will bring the virus with them.Russia recorded a new outbreak of the flu in a region of the Ural Mountains that was hit by the disease a few months ago. More than 30 chicken died in the village of Sunaly, 1,200 miles east of Moscow and preliminary tests revealed the H5N1 strain, the local branch of Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said.Austria on Saturday became the latest European country to introduce a ban on allowing chickens, geese and ducks to run free as a precaution against bird flu. On Friday, Norway told poultry farmers in the south and east of the country to keep their flocks indoors.The U.N.'s point man on bird flu warned in China on Friday that migrating fowl appear more susceptible to the disease. "There has been a shift in the susceptibility of wild fowl to H5N1," David Nabarro, chief U.N. coordinator for avian and human influenza, said in Beijing. "That's something that needs very careful attention if we're going to be ready for possible introduction of the bird flu virus in other locations through wild fowl."China's latest outbreak of the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain was reported this week in its northern Inner Mongolia region. Scientists say the country is a huge incubator for the disease because of its large poultry industry and vast territory, even though it has reported no human cases.Nepal also announced it will ban poultry imports from Europe after the virus was reported in poultry in Turkey, Romania and Russia.Bird flu has not reached Ukraine, but in this village where chickens and geese run freely, residents are debating what to do if it reaches them. They fear it is only a matter of time.Poultry farmers across Germany have been ordered to lock up their flocks from Saturday, in a defensive measure against avian bird flu. The Ministry for Agriculture took the emergency decision after a case of the deadly H5N1 virus bird-flu was discovered near Moscow. Farmers who don't comply will be fined up to $30,000.