# 964
While unusual, given that this is July, Europe's H5N1 woes continue with another infected bird having been discovered in the Thueringen state of East Germany.
Germany culls poultry after bird flu found in pet
Mon 9 Jul 2007 9:55:19 BST
HAMBURG, July 9 (Reuters) - German authorities culled about 1,200 farm and pet birds over the weekend after a pet goose tested positive for the lethal strain of bird flu, a government spokesman said on Monday.
The slaughtering programme had now been completed in an exclusion zone around Wickersdorf in Thueringen in east Germany, a Thueringen state government spokesman said.
A pet goose in a home for mentally handicapped people had tested positive for the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu and all farm and pet birds in a three-km exclusion zone were culled as a precautionary measure over the weekend, he said.
The affected goose had been able to run around freely and contact with wild birds was suspected as being the cause, he added. Investigations into the infection cause were continuing.
Thueringen had re-introduced a lock-up order for farm poultry which must be kept indoors in areas of high risk contact with wild birds, such as in farms near lakes and rivers.
H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed in a series of wild birds in Germany in the past three weeks in Thueringen, in the eastern state of Saxony and in the southern state of Bavaria.
