Following tests on Wednesday confirming the first outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in domestic fowl, Germany moved to cull thousands of birds. Like several European countries, Germany has seen repeated cases of avian flu in wild bird population in recent months. However, concern rose last Sunday that the nation's poultry farms could be affected after turkeys kept indoors in the eastern state of Saxony began to die. "This is the first (German) case of H5N1 in domestic fowl, and this makes it somewhat explosive," Saxony's minister of social affairs, Helma Orosz, said according to Reuters.

Local authorities in Saxony have had trouble taking steps to contain the virus. Early on Thursday, the three-kilometer quarantine area still lacked decontamination equipment for people and cars, and culling was delayed due to organizational difficulties. Within the affected area, police have set up control points to keep people from carrying out meat and eggs. (A few people have tried to spirit saleable poultry products out of the virus-hit region.) Germany's poultry industry association hopes the outbreak will be contained, and the country's papers do their best on Thursday not to panic.

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung admits it was "utopian" to think Germany's domestic poultry stocks would go untouched by the virus. "Bird flu is like a bad dream that returns every couple of weeks to frighten both consumers and politicians anew," the paper writes. "However, the H5N1 nightmare looks a little more threatening each time." First Asia was hit, then Russia, and now Europe. Wild birds in Germany started dying; then even weasels and cats caught the virus. Now poultry meant for human consumption poses a threat. But the Munich-based daily still tries to keep calm by pointing out that the danger to humans hasn't increased. "Until now there have been no cases of humans infected by poultry meat or eggs. The horror stories from Saxony haven't changed that: Bird flu is still an animal disease."

The Financial Times Deutschland asks whether wild birds are less to blame for the spread of the virus than the methods of the poultry industry. "No one is questioning whether birds in the wild can spread the disease. But when there are other, considerably more dangerous ways of spreading the virus, the authorities shouldn't be searching along bird migration routes," writes the paper. "Instead they should scrutinize the trade routes of facilities with masses of animals, the treatment of feed and poultry litter, and ventilation." The business daily argues against a grace period for the industry -- which has long fought greater transparency -- if bird flu can truly develop into a human pandemic.