Thursday, February 08, 2007
Turkey confirms return of bird flu
Turkey’s agriculture ministry confirmed today an outbreak of bird flu in the southeast of the country, just over a year after the H5N1 strain of the disease killed four children in the region.
The ministry said in a statement bird flu had been found on Thursday in the village of Bogazkoy in the Batman province. The ministry said it believed wild birds had spread the disease. “We have put under quarantine an area of three square km,” Batman Governor Haluk Imga said.
“We will cull nearly 1,500 chickens, ducks and turkeys in that area. A 25-man team is carrying out this work.” Veterinary experts were making tests to determine whether the virus was the deadly H5N1 strain.
Private broadcaster CNN Turk quoted Imga as saying there was no evidence of the disease spreading to the human population. Last year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed four deaths in Turkey from H5N1 - all of them children from the town of Dogubayazit near the Iranian border in Turkey’s impoverished east.
Avian influenza story source: The Irish Times