ROUND-UP OF BALEARIC BIRDS

By Humphrey Carter THE Balearic Ministry for the Environment is going to launch a massive bird-catching operation on Monday as part of the increasing steps being taken to combat bird flu. The Balearic director general for Hunting, Animal Protection and Environmental Education, Antoni Gómez explained yesterday that the primary targets will be migratory birds on Balearic marshes and wet lands. Examples of all species will be caught and analysed to establish whether or nor they are carrying the bird flu virus. The measure is just one of a list of recommendations issued by the Environment Ministry in Madrid in accordance with European Union bird-flu guidelines drawn up this week to combat the virus. Overseeing the operation will be a team of experts which was set up nearly a month ago. For the moment, the virus has only been detected in one species which migrates through the Balearics - the “larus melanocephalus” sea gull and only around 50 fly to the Balearics at this time of year. The birds originate from the Danube Delta and are not that common in the Balearics. Gómez added that the handful of these birds which do come to the Balearics have a different flight pattern to those migrating from the Eastern European countries affected by bird flu. The Balearic visitors come from central Europe, more commonly from Denmark, France and Holland. Despite growing concerns that the H5NI virus, which has killed over 60 people and caused the deaths of over one million birds in Asia since 2003, might mutate and develop into a virus which will be passed from human to human, Gómez called for “calm”. “There are no grounds for the public to be alarmed or worried about bird flu,” he said. He repeated the government's line that everything is under control and that stringent checks are being made.