"EU draws up contingency plan to head off bird flu crisis
By Stephen Castle, in Brussels
Published: 15 October 2005
Europe took dramatic steps to prevent poultry from contracting a strain of bird flu that has killed 60 people, as officials waited anxiously for the result of tests to identify how far the virus has spread.
After the confirmed discovery of the lethal H5N1 type of the virus in Turkey, EU experts agreed measures yesterday that could lead to millions of chickens and turkeys being kept indoors to prevent contact with migrating birds. As alarm spread in Turkey, there was mounting anxiety about a second outbreak in Romania which has been identified as bird flu but, as yet, not of the H5NI variety. The results of tests, due to be processed by a laboratory in Weybridge yesterday, may now not be known until Monday because of delays in sending samples from Romania to the UK."
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