27feb06 SWITZERLAND confirmed on Sunday its first outbreak of avian flu in a wild duck on the shores of Geneva, near the city's famous jet d'eau fountain.
Swiss officials said it was not yet clear if the bird, found on Wednesday floating between two boats next to the jet d'eau pier, was infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.
"We have a first case of bird flu. It's H5," Federal Veterinary Office spokeswoman Cathy Maret said, adding a sample has been sent to a European reference laboratory in Britain to test for the H5N1 strain in the duck.
Results are expected at the weekend, he said. Switzerland has been on high alert for bird flu since the virus emerged in neighbours France, Germany, Austria and Italy.
The country this month ordered all poultry be kept indoors for an indefinite period to lessen the risk from the fast-spreading H5N1 virus that has killed millions of birds.
It remains difficult for humans to catch but the strain has killed more than 90 people worldwide since late 2003.
So far most human victims of the virus have had direct or indirect contact with infected birds but there are fears the virus will mutate into a strain easily passed among people, causing a pandemic in which millions could die.
Poultry The Swiss Federal Veterinary Office said that in addition to the Geneva case, two wild ducks have tested positive for bird flu in the German towns of Ohningen and Singen, over the border from Lake Constance in eastern Switzerland.
"Switzerland is equally concerned about these areas," the government agency said in a statement.
The Swiss cantons Schaffhausen and Thurgau, located near the affected German sites, on Sunday enacted controls to restrict the movement of poultry and other birds and boost testing.
Officials in Geneva also enacted a surveillance zone around the site of its bird flu finding, although there are few poultry farms in the immediate area which is principally urban.
Nearly 200,000 people live in Geneva, home to the U.N.'s European headquarters, the International Committee of the Red Cross and a smattering of private banks.
In the city's Eaux Vives neighbourhood, red and white police tape blocked public access to the jetty where the infected duck, a female thought to be local to the area, was found.
Dozens of people casually walked and jogged along a lakeside path next to the blocked-off pier on Sunday evening. Young children kicked a ball within steps of ducks and small birds on the water's edge.
Local health authorities stressed there was little human risk from the single outbreak in Geneva despite its urban site.
Philippe Sudre, state medical officer for the Geneva canton, said that although the infected bird was found in a densely populated area, it was "extremely improbable" that the virus would spread to humans living near the lake.
"The risk from water is very, very close to zero," Sudre said.
In addition to the infected duck, Geneva sent samples from 16 other suspect birds for laboratory testing and all were found negative for avian flu, Laurence Mermod of the Geneva veterinary office told reporters.
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