Bird Flu Goes Global

TOBIAS SCHWARZ / REUTERS

Germany will confine all live poultry to choke the spread of the H5N1 virus

Now that bird flu has touched down in Britain, Romania, Russia and Turkey, fear is growing that the virus will sweep through Africa and the Middle East too. Last week, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization ( fao ) said that the risk of a major outbreak had "markedly increased," warning that some countries in these regions were unprepared. "We would have to mobilize donors, the international community and the veterinary services massively to respond," fao chief veterinary officer Joseph Domenech told Time .

The fao suspects that wild birds could spread the lethal h5n1 virus — which...

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