Bird flu spreads to Iran's World Cup training camp site in Germany

IRNA - The dangerous bird flu virus has spread to Iran's World Cup training camp site in the south German city of Friedrichshafen, located at the scenic Lake of Constance which is surrounded by Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Iran's national football team announced earlier they intended to hold their World Cup preparatory training camp in Friedrichshafen in late May.

The Iranian national football squad is scheduled to stay at the luxurious `Krone Hotel' which is just outside of Friedrichshafen in Schnetzenhausen.

Meanwhile last week German health officials discovered a dead wild duck with the deadly H5N1/Asia type along the beaches of the lake near the city of Ueberlingen which is some 30 kilometers away from Friedrichshafen.

Dozens of ducks, birds and swans on the lake have in the meantime succumbed to the bird flu as authorities have set up exclusion zones in a three-kilometer radius along the beaches.

German health experts anticipate a worsening of the bird flu situation in the Lake of Constance region as thousands of migratory birds will fly over the lake to head to western and central Europe from southern Europe and northern Africa.

A senior German politician warned earlier that the 2006 World Cup could be called off, if there is a bird flu pandemic in Germany.

The chairwoman of the agricultural committee of the German Parliament Baerbel Hoehn said she would contemplate such a move, if there are mass cases of human avian influenza detected in Germany over the next few months.

A total of five German states have so far been affected by he bird flu virus.

Hundreds of wild birds have died as a result of the bird flu outbreak which first hit Germany on February 14, mostly on the German Baltic island of Ruegen.

As a consequence of the bird flu detection, Germany has ordered farmers to keep poultry indoors.

Health officials have advised the public not to eat food products which are prepared with raw eggs.

They also warned the public not to touch any dead animals because of the risk of infection to humans.