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H5 Confirmed in Hungary
Recombinomics Commentary
February 15, 2006
Hungarian authorities detected an H5 subtype of the virus in three dead wild swans found in the southern county of Bacs Kiskun, the European Commission said yesterday.
Hungary is the sixth EU country to confirm H5 or H5N1. Most of the dead birds were swans, but the large number of positives highlights the failure to detect H5N1 previously. H5 has been confirmed in Greece, Italy, Austria, Germany, Slovenia indicating H5N1 bird flu has spread across Europe. However, in August Russia reported H5N1 north of the clusters in southern Siberia, suggesting H5N1 had entered the East Atlantic Flyway, which would have brought H5N1 to western Europe in the fall.
In the fall there were many reports of dying birds (see December map), but all countries in western Europe denied the presence of H5N1. The current series of positives raises serious concerns about the credibility of those claims.
Map
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