Bird flu outbreack in Turkey

Bird flu outbreack in Turkey

ArmRadio.am
09.02.2007 14:30

Turkish officials have confirmed that there has been an outbreak of
avian influenza in the country’s south-east.

Turkey’s agriculture ministry said at least 170 chickens had died in
a village in the province of Batman.

The ministry said it was checking if the bird deaths were caused by
the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. It is believed wild birds spread
the disease.

The country culled more than 1.3 million birds last year in an effort
to control the spread of the virus.

"Strict quarantine measures have been taken in an area of 10km
(6.2 miles) around the village where the disease was identified,"
the ministry said in a statement.

Turkey saw the first human deaths from H5N1 outside Asia, in January
2006, when 12 people were infected, four of whom later died.

More than 80 people have died of H5N1 bird flu since the disease’s
resurgence in December 2003 – most of them in South-East Asia.