Europeans must learn to live with avian flu as the disease has become so widespread in wild birds that it would be around for some time, the European Union's health chief said on Friday according to Reuters. The 25-nation bloc had adequate measures to contain the disease when it occurred, and would eventually eliminate it. But this would take time, Markos Kyprianou told a news conference during an informal meeting of EU health ministers. "Given that the virus is everywhere now, it's a problem that will stay for some time," Kyprianou said. "Both us and the European public have to learn to live with this problem, without any panic. We have the measures, we have the legislation, we have the experience to deal with similar problems. We have done so in the past, we can deal with it now and in the future," he said. Earlier on Friday, France confirmed it had found the H5 bird flu virus at a farm where thousands of turkeys had died and was testing if the virus was in fact the deadly H5N1 strain. If so, it would be the first confirmed case of H5N1 on an EU farm. "There is no reason to panic ... even if we have cases in farmed or domestic poultry," Kyprianou said. --More 22 03 Local Time 19 03 GMT
