Reuters AlertNet - Philippines culls 500 parrots on bird-flu fears

Reuters AlertNet - Philippines culls 500 parrots on bird-flu fears: "GENERAL SANTOS, Philippines, May 24 (Reuters) - The Philippines culled about 500 parrots imported from Indonesia as part of efforts to prevent the spread of the bird-flu virus from other Southeast Asian countries, officials said on Tuesday."

This story has little information, providing only the following,
- 500 "parrots" were confiscated at the Indonesian border by the Philippine government
- the parrots were held in 14 cages
- the parrots were destined for Europe

It would be interesting to know which species of parrot were confiscated, and if they were actually tested for bird flu. I was only able to find previous reports of H7N1 (not H5N1) in parrots, but that doesn't mean that it couldn't happen.

This is a classic wildlife trade/disease story: 500 parrots, possibly from an avian flu outbreak area, packed into 14 cages, smuggled to Philippines en route to Europe, reminiscent of a recent story. Not sure if there was a bullet to be dodged this time though ...