Romania discovered a new outbreak of bird flu in a village 80 km (50 miles) east of Bucharest, indicating avian flu might be spreading towards the city of 2.5 million people, the farm ministry said in a statement carried by Reuters today. Since October, Romania has found avian flu in 24 villages in and around the Danube delta on the Black Sea, where the deadly strain of the virus was first discovered 300 km from Bucharest. "Samples from domestic birds from one small farm in the Stefan Voda village in Calarasi county tested positive for bird flu," the ministry said. It said domestic birds in the small farm where bird flu was discovered were culled and the farm was quarantined, while tests are being carried out on birds in the whole village. Nine cases have been confirmed as the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain since October, and the ministry said it will send seven more samples from the counties of Ialomita and Calarasi in the east of the country to a British laboratory to be tested. H5N1 is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia where it has killed more than 70 people since late 2003. Experts say a flu pandemic among humans could kill millions around the globe and cause massive economic losses. Last week Romania, which has not registered any cases of bird flu in humans, warned that migratory birds possibly carrying the virus were heading towards the country's southern neighbour Bulgaria. The virus remains hard for people to catch, but there are fears it could mutate into a form easily transmissible among humans. There have been no cases in people outside of Asia. --SP 17 59 Local Time 14 59 GMT
