Second Romanian bird flu outbreak

Experts say Romania needs to keep up heightened precautions

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has been detected in a second location in Romania, officials have revealed.

Samples from the village of Maliuc tested positive for the virus. It follows an outbreak in Ceamurlia de Jos, also in Romania's Danube delta.

Meanwhile initial tests detected the same deadly strain in Tula in Russia, where hundreds of birds have died.

The EU has begun a two-day exercise to test European countries' readiness to deal with a major health crisis.

It said the exercise had been planned 18 months ago, long before the current outbreak of bird flu.

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The head of the EU Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Zsuzsanna Jakab, said the risk of bird flu for most people in Europe was close to zero.

But she issued two pieces of advice to Europeans to help avoid contamination by the virus - avoid touching dead birds, and make sure meals made from poultry meat and eggs are well prepared.

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A senior UN health official, visiting Romania's affected area, warned that the virus may remain in the Danube delta for a long time.

Dr Guenael Rodier, the director of communicable disease surveillance and response for the World Health Organization, praised Romania's response to the outbreak but said it would have to remain vigilant.

"It's very likely that... in the long-term, like it happened in Asia, that the virus [will] remain in the wild bird population in the delta," he said.

Quarantine and culling measures would have to be introduced at the first signs of bird flu outbreaks in future, he said.

H5N1 BIRD FLU VIRUS Principally an avian disease, first seen in humans in Hong Kong in 1997 Almost all human cases thought to be contracted from birds Possible cases of human-to-human transmission in Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam, but none confirmed Q&A: Avian flu

He spoke as Romania introduced more precautions, including a ban on fishing and large public gatherings in the delta area.

Preliminary tests suggest bird flu has also arrived in European Russia, west of the Ural mountains, having been found in Asian Siberia already.

Russian laboratories said H5N1 had been detected in birds in Tula, about 220km (137 miles) south of Moscow.

At least 60 people in Asia have died after contracting flu from birds infected by H5N1, but scientists say the disease does not appear able to spread between humans.

However, experts fear that if it mutates, it could become highly contagious and lead to a deadly worldwide pandemic.

Bird flu - though not necessarily the H5N1 strain - has been discovered in Turkey, Greece and is suspected in Macedonia, apparently after being carried to Europe from Asia by migrating wild birds.

The H5N1 strain remained largely in South-East Asia until this summer, when Russia and Kazakhstan both reported outbreaks

Scientists fear it may be carried by migrating birds to Europe and Africa but say it is hard to prove a direct link with bird migration

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