India was testing dozens of people for bird flu on Sunday, while France sought to ease consumer fears after its first avian case of the H5N1 virus by urging people to eat chicken.

Egyptian authorities closed Cairo zoo and seven other state-run zoos around the country for two weeks from Sunday after 83 birds died there, some from the H5N1 strain.

Continuing its spread from Asia to the heart of Europe, the virus reached Germany's mainland after previously being confined to its Baltic Sea island of Ruegen and Romania detected further cases in dead poultry in a village and a summer resort.

The arrival of H5N1 in Europe has hit the poultry industry hard, with some countries reporting a more than 50 percent drop in sales in the past week, and French Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau said it was vital to help the sector.

"The first step consumers can take in solidarity (with chicken farmers) is not to stop eating chicken," he told Europe 1 radio. "If after this broadcast you had a bit of time to eat some chicken, that would be a good thing."

France, Europe's biggest poultry producer, confirmed its first case of the H5N1 virus in a dead duck on Saturday.

Avian influenza has flared anew in recent weeks, spreading among birds in Europe and parts of Africa, and prompting authorities to impose bans on the poultry trade, introduce mass culling and vaccinate poultry flocks.

The World Health Organization says the H5N1 virus has killed 91 people worldwide since late 2003. Two hundred million birds across Asia, parts of the Middle East, Europe and Africa have died of the virus or been culled.

The Indian government said it had found no cases of human avian influenza after preliminary tests on a dead farmer earlier suspected to have been the country's first human victim of the virus.

The world's second-most populous country was testing people for avian flu after announcing on Saturday that 50,000 birds had died in the western Maharashtra state and tests on some fowl had showed H5N1 bird flu.

"There are, however, no reports of any human cases of avian influenza," the health ministry said in a statement.

SICK BIRDS IN ZOO

In Cairo, zoo manager Talaat Sidraus told Reuters that workers had begun disinfecting bird cages. Witnesses saw dead and sick birds inside the zoo grounds but it was not immediately clear if they had bird flu.

Elsewhere, authorities in northern Spain were testing a duck found dead in a lake to see if it carried H5N1, while Britain said the virus was now more likely to reach its shores.

Authorities in Bulgaria put a man in an isolation chamber and were testing him for H5N1 after two of his ducks died and in Nigeria authorities were culling poultry and urging people not to eat sick birds after outbreaks there.

Experts have long feared the consequences of bird flu taking hold in Africa because of poor health and surveillance systems.

The United Nations' AIDS chief said avian flu posed a major threat to Africa's fight against its AIDS epidemic, challenging overburdened health care systems and stretching economies.

Bird flu is also threatening livelihoods by slashing demand for poultry in Europe, Nigeria and parts of India.

"I have bought 200 chickens today but I know I will not be able to sell them," chicken trader Mohammad Taqi said at New Delhi's Ghazipur poultry market, where bird droppings and feathers litter the area and a nauseating stench fills the air.

But one customer was happy.

"I have heard about bird flu on TV but I am not bothered. I want to enjoy the low prices," said Nanku Ram, a labourer holding a huge bird.

(Source: Reuters)