Property and business interruption

17.5, bird flu

International: five more people died from bird flu in Indonesia, the World Health Organization confirmed. The deaths of the five, who were all from the same family, brings Indonesia’s bird flu death toll to 30. At least four of the people who died lived in northern Sumatra. The WHO has sent a team to the area to investigate. In Egypt, a 75-year-old woman died of bird flu, the sixth death caused by the disease in that country. The woman had apparently been in contact with infected poultry, according to the Egyptian authorities. The World Health Organization confirmed that 13 people had been infected with bird flu in Egypt. Eight of those infected recovered fully. The United Nations’ chief bird flu expert praised Egypt’s response to bird flu. Surveillance of bird flu had helped to keep the human case mortality rate very low. Egypt’s first human bird flu infection was reported in mid-March. Denmark halted exports of poultry from the island of Funen after birds on a farm tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu. It was the first case of H5N1 in domestic birds in Denmark. The deadly strain of the virus had been found previously only in wild birds. It was confirmed in domestic birds by the Danish national laboratory. Birds at the Funen farm were culled after 47 of about 100 died over a two day period. A peacock and two guinea fowl had tested positive. Officials said the birds had not been kept under cover in accordance with recommendations after the first Danish cases of bird flu earlier this year. The outbreak may force Denmark to halt all poultry exports to some countries, not just exports from Funen.