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| Credit Wikipedia |
#12,922
While there is nothing yet on the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture website, numerous media reports this morning in the Turkish press indicate two villages in the eastern part of the country have reported outbreaks of (reportedly) H5N8 in poultry.
First this report from CNN Turkey, followed by a caveat and a bit of Turkey's history with bird flu.
Bird flu has returned nightmare: two villages were included in the quarantine
Monday 11/27/2017 15:42 (Updated: 11/27/2017 15:42 Monday)
bird flu cases were seen in pain Taşlıçay district. 2 villages were under quarantine. Poultry were sent to be examined.
Taşlıçay of bird flu cases occurred in the district. According to the information received, depending on the county and Güneysöğüt up Taşlıçay villages, were placed under quarantine now seen due to illness. Drug treatments for poultry starts, the received samples were sent to the laboratory for analysis.
While not stated in the above report, other media stories today (see here, and here) suggest the virus has already been identified as H5N8.
I would note that earlier this summer, in Turkish Media Reporting large Die Offs Of Poultry - Facilities Quarantined, we saw similar reports not far from this site which - to my knowledge - were never confirmed.
So far, the OIE does not show any HPAI outbreaks in Turkey for 2017.In the middle of the last decade Turkey had quite a bad time with hundreds of outbreaks of H5N1 (including a dozen human infections and four deaths) - and so their press can be a bit hyperbolic on the subject of bird flu (Kuş Gribi).
Additionally, the quarantining towns and poultry facilities has long been a part of Turkey's bird flu control playbook, and so we should not read too much into that.We'll keep an eye on these reports, as this is the time of year we would expect outbreaks in that area of the world. But for now, these reports are unconfirmed.
