Special report: Global fight against bird flu

    BUCHAREST, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Romania is planning to cull some 1 million domestic fowl after the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus was found in three central locations of the country, Agriculture Minister Gheorghe Flutur said on Sunday.

    "Almost 1 million birds will be culled in total in central Romanian regions that have been hit or could be hit by bird flu," Flutur told a press conference.

    "The discovery of bird flu on a farm (in the Codlea region) is a first in Romania, since the first case of the disease was detected on Oct. 7, 2005. We will quickly cull the farm's approximately 350,000 chickens, as well as other poultry in contaminated centers," he said.

    Earlier in the day, the National Veterinary Health Agency said it had found the H5N1 virus in the central region of Fagaras, as well as on a poultry farm in Codlea.

    Romanian authorities already found new cases of the virus, which can be deadly to humans, in the central town of Hurezu on Friday.

    Meanwhile, Health Minister Eugen Nicolaescu said the drug Tamiflu had been given out to residents in the affected regions to prevent a possible human case of bird flu.

    Romania closed down its last bird flu quarantine zone in the east of the country on April 20. But the newly detected cases show that the country still has a long way to go in its efforts to ward off the epidemic.

    The first bird flu case in Romania was detected in the Danube delta last October. Since then, the epidemic had spread to more regions of the country, bringing to 53 the number of restricted quarantine zones.

    No cases of human infections have been reported in the country. Enditem