UPDATE
(fair use snip)
Bird Flu Surfaces In Delaware
Location Of Chicken Houses Not Disclosed
Feb 6, 2004 8:07 pm US/Central
DOVER, Del. (AP) Delaware officials ordered the destruction of some 12,000 farm chickens on Friday after confirming that the flock was infected by avian influenza.
State agriculture secretary Michael Scuse said the flu strain is different from the one that has spread to the human population in Asia, and that there is no threat to human health.
Scuse would not disclose the location of the infected chicken houses or identify the grower, saying only that it was an independent operation in Kent County.
The strain, known as H7, has the potential to cause severe economic damage if it spreads to the commercial broiler industry, a linchpin of the region's agricultural economy.
http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/topstories_story_037210933.html(fair use snip)
NEWSDESK
07 Feb 2004 10:43:24 GMT
WRAPUP 1-Bird flu detected in U.S. as virus wanes in Asia
By Christopher Wilson and Khettiya Jittapong
WASHINGTON/BANGKOK, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The first case of bird flu appeared in the United States just as hard-hit Thailand said it hoped to clear the last outbreak of an epidemic that has killed 18 people and decimated poultry flocks across Asia.
More than 12,000 chickens have been quarantined in the U.S. state of Delaware and are due to be destroyed after they were found to have a strain of the virus which differs from the one that has killed people in Thailand and Vietnam, the Delaware State News reported on its Web site.
Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Michael Scuse told the newspaper the strain found in the U.S. chickens was known as H7. The killer Asian strain was H5N1.
"We are trying to act as quickly as possible," Scuse told the Delaware State News. "We are trying to protect an industry here that is awfully valuable".
In addition to the destruction of the 12,000 chickens in Delaware's Kent County, all farms within two miles of the infected birds will be tested within the next week, Scuse said.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP15922.htm