Bird Flu Virus May Be Spread by Smuggling

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NYTimes

Elisabeth Rosenthal

April 15, 2006

 

Bird Flu Virus May Be Spread by Smuggling

 

MILAN — Two vans of undercover police inspectors

pulled up at a storefront in Milan in March, their

target neither terrorists nor drugs.

 

Picking their way through a refrigerator at the back

of a Chinese grocery store off a piazza, the agents

found their quarry: bags of duck feet.

 

This followed a similar raid at a Milan warehouse a

few months ago that yielded three million packages of

chicken meat smuggled from China.

 

There is increasing evidence that a thriving

international trade in smuggled poultry — including

live birds, chicks and meat — is helping spread bird

flu, experts say.

 

Poultry smuggling is a huge business that poses a

unique threat: The (A)H5N1 bird flu virus is robust

enough to survive not just in live birds but also in

frozen meat, feathers, bones and even on cages, though

it dies with cooking..

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/15/world/europe/15bird.html

 

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