# 10,007
On Sunday, in Media Reports: Bird Flu (H5N1?) In Turkish Poultry, we saw reports (later confirmed by the FAO) of an unidentified HPAI outbreak in the Bandırma district of the province of Balıkesir (bullseye on the map above). While HPAI is strongly suspsected, we’ve not seen an official lab report as yet.
Today, however, the OIE has confirmed an outbreak of HPAI H5N1 in a small backyard flock in Kastamonu Province several hundred kilometers further east.
We’ve recently seen HPAI H5N1 showing up in countries in Eastern Europe, including Russia, Bulgaria, and Hungary after an absence of several years. This becomes Turkey’s first official H5N1 outbreak since 2008.
Source of the outbreak(s) or origin of infection
- Unknown or inconclusive
Epidemiological comments
Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 was detected as a result of analysis. Protection and surveillance zones have been established in the area surrounding the outbreak. 92 backyard poultry were destroyed in a 3 km radius area. All holdings containing backyard poultry were cleaned and disinfected after destruction process. Monitoring activities continue in the 10 km radius surveillance zone surrounding the 3 km radius protection zone.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, H5N1 is on the move again in 2015 after several years of relative quiescence. It has been reported in at number of countries that have not seen it in five years or longer (Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Turkey) and it continues to cause the largest, and most sustained, human outbreak of the virus we’ve seen to date in Egypt.
