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.
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.
Scientists fear the H5N1 virus could mutate to a form easily transmitted from human to human. As people would lack immunity, it could then sweep the world, killing millions, they say. Victims usually contract bird flu through direct exposure to diseased or dead poultry.