No Bird Flu in pelican deaths

Additional tests will be conducted to determine what killed the birds, stated Brent Bain — a spokesman for the Ministry of Agriculture. The birds washed ashore on Sunday on a beach in South-East Trinidad near a bpTT facility. The company contacted wildlife officials, said Nicole Duke-Westfield, a spokeswoman for bpTT.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has killed or forced the slaughter of tens of millions of chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003. It has spread more recently with migrating birds to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

There are 184 confirmed human cases and 103 deaths linked to the virus. No cases have been reported in the Caribbean although there was a scare following the deaths of several wild birds in the Bahamas in late February.