2006年VOA标准英语-Italian Authorities Meet on Bird Flu Cases

By Sabina Castelfranco
Turin
12 February 2006

Francesco Storace gestures at a press conference in Rome, February 11, 2006
  
  
Italian veterinary officials were meeting Sunday, after the country's first confirmed cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus were discovered in wild swans in southern Italy. 

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Cases of the virus were confirmed on Saturday, following tests carried out in a laboratory in Padua.

The virus was found in five swans in the three southern Italian regions of Puglia, Calabria and Sicily. Italian Health Minister Francesco Storace said the swans had arrived from the Balkans, probably driven south by cold weather.

The cases in Italy, and others confirmed in northern Greece Saturday, mark the first time the highly infectious H5N1 strain of the virus has been detected within the European Union.

The Italian health minister said the outbreak posed no immediate¹ threat to humans, as the virus has only affected² wild birds. He said the situation was relatively³ safe for human health; less so for animal health. Storace announced a series of precautionary measures.

He said that in the three kilometers surrounding the area where the H5N1 virus was found, all farms, poultry⁴ and animals are being checked constantly with inspections⁵ using samples, which are taken to laboratories for tests.

An additional surveillance area has been established seven-kilometers around the outbreak area. Birds that are infected, or suspected of being infected, will be killed, and hunting wild birds has been banned in both zones.

In Greece, authorities said health experts were checking poultry on farms and homes in the region where infected swans were found outside the northern city of Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city.

The European Union said that H5N1 also had been been found in wild swans in the Bulgarian wetland region of Vidin, close to the Romanian border.

Authorities in Greece and Bulgaria, as in Italy, have said no humans have been infected.

1 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

5 inspections   

n.检查( inspection的名词复数 )；检验；视察；检阅

参考例句：

• Regular inspections are carried out at the prison. 经常有人来视察这座监狱。
• Government inspections ensure a high degree of uniformity in the standard of service. 政府检查确保了在服务标准方面的高度一致。 来自《简明英汉词典》