Spanish Health Minister Ana Pastor said on Saturday that no bird flu case has been found in the country.
Pastor told reporters that Spain has suspended poultry imports from Thailand, one of the countries affected by the disease which has killed 18 people in Asia. She advised Spanish visitors to Asia to stay away from poultry farms and markets.
"The known transmission mechanism is from bird to man" although some international organizations warned the possibility that the virus might also be in "porcine nasal secretions," she said.
Bird flu is caused by an airborne respiratory virus that spreads easily among chickens through nasal and eye secretions as well as manure.
"Spain has taken the necessary measures to keep citizens from any type of risks of bird flu contagion," she said, stressing that the Spaniards in Asia should only eat perfectly done poultry or pork.
Pastor denied receiving any information from the World Health Organization or the European Union on a human bird flu case in the United States.
A strain of H7 bird flu, which is different from the H5N1 virus that is affecting humans in Asia, was discovered in a farm in the US state of Delaware Thursday.
(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2004)
