Fowl news from Romania

BUCHAREST, May 15 (Reuters) - Romania may cull around 1 million domestic birds to prevent the spread of avian flu to highly populated areas after the deadly strain was detected at a chicken farm, authorities said on Monday.

On Saturday, Romania detected a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, just a month after the strain was said to have been eradicated in the Black Sea state. Around 2,000 domestic fowl were culled in the county of Brasov.

Romania has culled nearly half a million fowl and gradually stopped around 60 bird flu outbreaks since the first bird flu case was detected in the Danube delta last October.

The new outbreaks occurred in the villages of Hurez, at a chicken farm in Codlea and in the outskirts of the small town of Fagaras in the county of Brasov, some 170 km (106 miles) north of Bucharest.

"If further tests will detect the virus at other farms in the Codlea region, around 1 million birds might be culled there," Romania's chief veterinarian Ion Agafitei told Reuters.

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