Tests on poultry, wild ducks

Tests to check whether wild ducks in Malta are carrying the deadly avian influenza virus will soon start being carried out by the Veterinary Division.

Waterfowl are thought to be the biggest threat in spreading the disease. Food and Veterinary Division director Mireille Vella explained that waterfowl are the most resistant to the virus and are also the ones that are most likely to pass it on.

A spokesman for the Environment Ministry said sampling of ducks on farms had already started. However, he stressed there was no reason for alarm.

Checks on poultry have been held for some time and nothing irregular had been detected, Health Minister Louis Deguara told Labour MP Joe Debono Grech in reply to a parliamentary question yesterday.

Asked whether checks would also be made on unregistered breeders, Parliamentary Secretary Francis Agius said a programme of checks was being planned in association with local councils.

The news comes just as Greece yesterday confirmed its first case of bird flu, although the results of tests to confirm whether the birds were affected by the deadly H5N1 virus were still pending. Yesterday also saw Croatia starting to conduct tests on dead birds that had been discovered.

Despite fears that the H5N1 virus will cause the next influenza pandemic, the virus has not yet mutated into one which could be transmitted easily from person to person. Until this happens, the risks of contracting the H5N1 virus without coming into contact with an infected bird are remote.

Just days ago both Turkey and Romania culled thousands of birds after a number of farms were affected by the virus.

Asked whether the events of the past week meant that the virus was spreading quickly, Dr Vella explained that the migratory season had started and, moreover, there was a full moon which also affected migration. Migration also depended on the winds.

Asked whether a ban on hunting was possible, the environment ministry spokesman said the EU was not yet recommending that measure but if it did, the possibility would be evaluated locally. He said all recommendations made by the European Union were being implemented by Malta.

On whether hunters would be open to a ban on hunting, Federation for Hunting and Conservation secretary Lino Farrugia said they were "open to anything". He stressed that this issue concerned people's health and therefore any recommendations would be followed.

However, he said not a lot of migratory waterfowl, which were the biggest carriers, came on land.

The federation is in constant discussions with Dr Vella about the issue and she said a circular to hunters was expected to be issued shortly.

Hunters, she said, had been asked to keep their eyes open for any dead birds and contact the division if they noticed any irregular signs in birds.

In a statement, the hunting federation said there was no reason for hunters to "worry excessively about the remote risk of infection through the handling or consumption" of hunted birds.

Although hunting can in general continue as usual, it recommended that hunters strictly follow any regulation or advice from the authorities about the risk of infection or spread of avian influenza.

Moreover, the federation said, through their outdoor activities, hunters could help detect deaths, immediately report birds with abnormal behaviour or any other indication of infection and also provide samples of harvested birds for official monitoring programmes.

Discussions are also being held with representatives of BirdLife Malta. Dr Vella said this week the representatives were going to be shown how to collect the faeces of protected birds from nature reserves.

Questioned about the risk posed by pigeons, she said although care always had to be exerted, pigeons were not carriers and usually died within the hour of contracting the disease.

Pigeons could act as a sentinel to indicate that the virus has arrived in Malta. "If we see 50 dead pigeons, then we would know that something might be wrong," she said.

However it was important that nobody poisoned pigeons in a bid to cause alarm, she added.