Bulgaria vulnerable to bird flu outbreaks

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria is very vulnerable to bird flu because of backyard poultry and exposure to migratory birds carrying the virus, its chief veterinarian said on Wednesday.

Zheko Baichev, general director of the National Veterinary Service, told Reuters in an interview that the Balkan country was constantly on alert and had stepped up measures to prevent a possible spread to commercial fowl.

"Bulgaria lies on a very threatened geographical spot -- on a migratory bird route between Romania and Turkey, who have had problems with the disease in the past two years," Baichev said.

He said about 300,000-400,000 wild geese spent the winter from January through to February in the Danube delta on the border between Bulgaria and Romania and were the species most guilty of spreading the disease in southeast Europe.

"They get infected but they do not become sick and they can spread the disease. Swans are very susceptible," Baichev said.

Bulgaria, which joined the European Union last year, has not detected any bird flu outbreaks on farms. It found the deadly H5N1 avian flu virus in four wild swans in 2006.

Veterinary experts believe that migratory birds represent a serious risk in the spread of H5N1. The virus, which is known to have killed 225 people globally since 2003, originated in Asia and has spread to Europe.

Bulgaria, along with Romania and Turkey, lies on the Pontic migratory route which wild birds use to travel from Scandinavia and Siberia to northern Africa for the winter.

Baichev said backyard poultry, which account for about 40 percent of the country's over 20 million domestic fowl, were most at risk.

"One of our weak spots is backyard poultry which does not comply with (veterinary) standards. It's subsistent farming just for family needs and it will take a long time to tackle it".

He said some villagers resisted orders to keep domestic fowl indoors to avoid contact with wild birds.

Bulgaria, which supplies about 9 percent of western Europe's goose liver and produces about 100,000 tonnes of chicken meat a year, has no free range poultry farms.

Baichev said authorities should limit duck and goose hunting or ban it completely as it also posed a risk in the spread of the disease.

Authorities have stepped up since November monitoring and testing of poultry and wild birds as a precaution after Turkey and Romania both reported outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 bird flu on farms.

Last week, Bulgaria discovered H7 bird flu in a wild duck. In its highly pathogenic form, H7 bird flu can kill large numbers of birds and can occasionally infect people, although it is rarely fatal in humans.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)