2006年VOA标准英语-France Confirms First Case of Deadly Bird

By Margaret Besheer
Washington
18 February 2006

French officials have confirmed the first case of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in their country. The virus was found in a wild duck in southeastern France.

Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau  
  
France's agriculture minister confirmed Saturday that the dead duck found Monday near the city of Lyon tested positive for the H5N1 strain of avian flu.

French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau stressed that the bird was wild, and that at this point, no poultry¹ breeding farms have been affected².

France's announcement came as other countries struggled with outbreaks of the deadly strain.

Austria's Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat said Saturday that authorities suspect a dead swan found in the capital, Vienna, and a dead duck in a neighboring village also died of the deadly virus.

Last week, Austrian officials said preliminary tests indicated four wild swans found in a southern province probably died of the virus. Authorities have ordered all domestic poultry to be kept indoors to avoid contact with migrating and wild birds.

Meanwhile, India's Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said several people are being tested for bird flu after that country confirmed its first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus.

"I have got a confirmation³ from them that there are seven or eight cases where symptoms of this particular disease is very much there," said Sharad Pawar.

Tens of thousands of chickens have died from bird flu in recent weeks in western India. Officials have begun culling⁴ thousands of birds within a three-kilometer radius⁵ of the poultry farm in the town of Navapur where the confirmed cases were detected.

Indonesia is also battling the virus, and officials there confirmed the latest bird flu death in a 23-year-old man.

Also Saturday, Hong Kong officials said a dead magpie⁶ was infected with the deadly strain.

Health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that could be easily passed among humans, leading to a global pandemic. World Health Organization figures put the human death toll⁷ at around 90 people since late 2003 - most of them in China and southeast Asia.

1 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?

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 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

4 culling   

n.选择，大批物品中剔出劣质货v.挑选，剔除( cull的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The mathematicians turned to culling periodic solutions. 数学家们转而去挑选周期解。 来自辞典例句
• It took us a week to find you, a week of culling out prejudice and hatred. 我们花了一个星期的时间找到你们，把偏见和憎恨剔除出去。 来自演讲部分

5 radius   

n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限

参考例句：

• He has visited every shop within a radius of two miles.周围两英里以内的店铺他都去过。
• We are measuring the radius of the circle.我们正在测量圆的半径。

6 magpie   

n.喜欢收藏物品的人，喜鹊，饶舌者

参考例句：

• Now and then a magpie would call.不时有喜鹊的叫声。
• This young man is really a magpie.这个年轻人真是饶舌。

7 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。