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France confirms first bird flu outbreak on farm

PARIS: The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has hit a turkey farm in southeast France, the first such case reported in the European Union (EU), the French Government said on Saturday, a day after the bloc decided to launch a media campaign to combat fears over the virus' rapid spread.

``The H5N1 virus is confirmed as the cause of the death of turkeys farmed in the (southeast) Ain region,'' the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement, adding that the farm has been sealed off with surviving birds slaughtered.

It is the first outbreak of bird flu on a farm in the 25-member E.U.

Emergency meet

Cases of the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus, which has killed at least 92 persons, mostly in Asia, since 2003, have been reported so far in eight E.U. countries — Austria, Germany, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia and Slovakia.

All previous cases have been found in wild birds. France had also confirmed two cases of H5N1 bird flu, both in wild ducks found in the Ain region.

In Vienna, E.U. Health Ministers said during an emergency meeting that they would launch a public awareness campaign on bird flu, aimed at easing growing fears over health and food safety, as the virus is continuing to spread across Europe.

The Ministers agreed to adopt a ``coordinated information policy'' on risks and what preventative measures farmers and the general public could take to ensure the virus does not spread further, said Austrian Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat, whose country currently holds the rotating E.U. presidency.

The meeting was organised to assess what the E.U. could do to prevent the further spread of the disease among birds and to keep it from infecting farm poultry.

20th case in Indonesia

Meanwhile, Indonesia's bird flu toll hit the 20 mark on Saturday with confirmation that a 27-year-old woman had succumbed to the H5N1 virus, the Health Ministry said.

The woman, a housewife who had direct contact with her neighbour's chickens, was admitted to Sulianti Saroso hospital in Jakarta on Monday and died the same day, hospital spokesman Ilham Patu said.

Her test results came back from the United States on Saturday in the middle of a three-day anti-bird flu crackdown in the Indonesian capital Jakarta that has seen hundreds of birds culled. — Xinhua, AFP

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