Bird flu fears will ruin swans' sex lives, Swiss zoo warns - Yahoo! News
Bird flu fears will ruin swans' sex lives, Swiss zoo warns - Yahoo! News: "ZURICH (AFP) - As Europe frets about a possible bird flu pandemic that could kill millions of humans, Swiss zookeepers worry that measures imposed to stem the virus will ruin their swans' sex lives.
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Swiss swans have just one more weekend to have a fling before a government ban on keeping birds in the open air comes into effect on Monday.
Forcing the birds to stay indoors will disrupt their behaviour just as they are getting ready for reproductive action in the mating season which is about to start, a leading Swiss zoo said Friday.
Locking them up could increase their stress levels, raising the risk of infection, increased aggression and loss of appetite, Robert Zingg of Zurich zoo told Swiss television.
The zoo said it wanted some leeway in the ban.
On Wednesday, Swiss authorities reimposed the ban that was previously in place from October to December, after cases of the H5N1 bird flu virus were identified among swans elsewhere in Europe.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 strain has killed at least 91 people after striking poultry flocks in eastern Asia, as well as in Turkey and northern
Iraq.
It has also struck in Nigeria and Egypt, and there are fears that migratory birds may be spreading it in Europe as they return after wintering in "







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