Dead Swans on Rügen

Where did the dead swans on Rügen come from? The spatial distribution of the medium-compatible staged epidemic disease is eye-catching. Coincidence or accident?

The Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) is the Federal Research Institute for animal health. It has its head office on the island Riems. Apart from the research institute there is the (private) vaccine company “Riemser Arzneimittel AG”; the two enterprises had only been separated 15 years ago, before that research and production were under one roof. Riems is only some 100 meters far from Rügen, where the dead birds were found. Diagnosis: bird flu. 

The island Riems is located south to the Greifswalder Bodden, a shallow extension of the Baltic Sea. Administratively it belongs to the Hanseatic city Greifswald, however, is a exclave. The village Riemserort is located on the mainland opposite the island. The island is restricted area.

History of the FLI

How did the bird flu get to Rügen? Well - the bird flu can get everywhere. Also to Riems. The oldest virus laboratory of the world. It was founded 1910 by Friedrich Loeffler. In the year 1898 Loeffler discovered something: the dangerous muzzle and claw epidemic does not come from bacteria. It comes from an up to then unknown kind of „smallest organism“. And hey presto - viruses were discovered. What does this have to do with bird flu? Nothing.

Correctly: before Loeffler viruses were unknown. Today their existence is disputed again, but this is another topic.

Even after having infected the Greifswalder area with muzzle and claw epidemic (by his research, by mistake – of course) this did not mean the end of the researches. The ambitious scientist moved together with the institute: into the separatingness of the island Riems. What does this have to do with bird flu? Still nothing.

Animal Epidemic Restricted Area

Today's emphasis of the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health (sic!) is the research of BSE, muzzle and claw epidemic, pig plague, and – yes, exactly: the bird flu. And then suddenly dead swans fall on the ice, swans, which never left the district. What a coincidence. What does this have to do with bird flu? Certainly nothing at all. Picture right: the only road to Riems - restricted area.

Picture right: The only road to the island of Riems, a small dyke, is closed for the public. The first sign reads: "Entry for authorized persons only. Employees of BFAV"

The sign below reads: "Animal Epidemic RESTRICTED AREA. No admittance for unauthorized persons."