Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Yiannis Gikas struck chicken off his grocery list after Greece last week reported it may have the first case of the deadly bird-flu in the European Union.

``I´m worried,´´ said Gikas, a 23-year-old student, as he finished buying his weekly supermarket supplies in Athens. ``It will be a long time before I buy any chicken again.´´

Greeks are ditching chicken dinners, seeking flu shots and sending dozens of dead birds for tests after an initial probe on Oct. 17 showed a turkey was exposed to the virus on the Aegean island of Oinousses near the coast of Turkey, where the disease´s H5N1 strain has been found. The strain has killed more than 60 people in Asia.

Contradictory government statements about the suspect bird´s whereabouts made matters worse, with the daily newspaper To Vima asking ``Where´s the turkey?´´ on its front page on Oct. 20. Final results on whether the turkey was infected won´t be known until this week. Gikas and other Greeks aren´t taking any chances, dealing a blow to the country´s poultry industry, which generates 500 million euros ($598 million) in annual sales.

Bird flu can spread to humans through contact with raw poultry meat, according to the World Health Organization in Geneva. About 10,000 tons of unsold, frozen chicken will be put into storage by the end of the month, bringing chicken producers´ losses to 30 million euros, said Lazaros Tsakanikas, managing director at the Ioannina, Greece-based Poultry Cooperative, the country´s biggest chicken farm.

``People are in a sheer panic,´´ he said in a phone interview on Oct. 19. Poultry sales have slumped as much as 80 percent and egg sales are down about 40 percent, said Tsakanikas, whose company provides more than a quarter of the 220,000 tons of chicken consumed by Greeks annually.

Dead Bird Tests

``It´s just foreign immigrants buying chicken now because it´s cheap and they´re poor,´´ said Kleanthis Tsironis, president of the meat vendors group at Athens Varvakeio, the country´s biggest fresh-food market place.

Greece has stopped poultry shipments from Oinousses, an island of 700 people, which has produced some of Greece´s biggest ship- owning families, such as the Lemos and the Pateras. The government has advised bird breeders across the country to keep their stock in closed spaces to avoid contact with migratory birds that might spread the disease.

Hospitals have been ordered to dispense anti-flu shots only on doctor´s prescriptions as waiting lists for vaccinations swell and stocks of the vaccine run low. Greece has ordered 210,000 anti-flu vaccines from London-based GlaxoSmithKline Plc and urged Greek pharmaceutical companies to replenish depleted stocks.

Turkey Hunt

In the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, more than 150 samples of bird-tissue piled up at the country´s only EU-certified laboratory after Greeks brought in dead birds for testing. None of the 50 birds examined have tested positive, agriculture ministry spokeswoman Efi Chatziioannidou said.

The concern is being fueled by questions over what happened to the suspect bird. The agriculture ministry said the blood sample from the turkey would be confirmed by the Thessaloniki laboratory.

A day later, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said the sample had been exhausted in initial tests. Instead, tissue from the sickest turkey in the same flock was sent to London for further tests, he said.

``The problem is that politicians handled strictly scientific affairs,´´ Spyros Kyriakis, a professor of veterinary science at the University of Athens and an adviser to the government, said in a telephone interview.

Tested Negative

Kyriakis says the Oinousses flock of 20 turkeys doesn´t have the deadly H5N1 virus. ``If it did, the flock would have been dead within 48 hours,´´ he said. Eight turkeys from the flock have tested negative to the disease.

Initial tests on the sample sent from Greece were negative for the H5 virus, an EU spokeswoman said Oct. 20. The EU has asked for further samples to be sent and hasn´t ruled out that the disease has reached Greece.

Deputy Health Minister Athanassios Yiannopoulos last week warned Greeks not to over-react, saying the panic could have ``tragic consequences´´ for the tourism industry, which is seeing its first increase in arrivals in five years. Tourism provides about 16 percent of the country´s gross domestic product, according to the National Bank of Greece in Athens.

Chicken Dinner

In 2002, a mystery virus in Greece killed three and hospitalized about 30, prompting countries such as Serbia and Macedonia to advise citizens against travel to Greece.

To allay fears, Health Minister Nikitas Kaklamanis had a chicken dinner on Oinousses on Oct. 19, when he visited the residents there. Gikas, the student, is unimpressed.

``The minister can eat as much chicken as he wants because he has scientists checking it for him,´´ he said. ``I don´t.´´


2005/10/24