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Turkey, the country this time, not the bird, is reporting an outbreak of the bird flu virus. Last year, Turkey suffered greatly from an outbreak, with four confirmed deaths. Some Turkish doctors believed they treated more bird flu patients than were officially recognized, and blamed poor testing at the time.
This report from TVNZ.
Turkey confirms return of bird flu
Feb 9, 2007
Turkey's agriculture ministry has confirmed 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.
Broadcaster CNN Turk reported that three children in the area had been put under medical observation for suspected bird flu but the governor's office in Batman province said no human cases had been reported.
The agriculture ministry said in a statement bird flu had been found on Thursday in the village of Bogazkoy in Batman. 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 told Reuters.
"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.
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.
Eight other Turks tested positive for the H5N1 strain but recovered, according to WHO data. More than 160 people worldwide have died of the virus since 2003.
