Birds culled in Europe flu scare

TURKISH authorities yesterday ordered farmers in a quarantined village in the west of the country to hand over their turkeys and chickens for culling or face fines in a bid to contain an outbreak of suspected bird flu.

In Romania, where the first suspected bird flu cases were reported on Friday, 40,000 birds are to be slaughtered in the coming days and authorities gave thousands of people a flu vaccine to prevent them from getting human flu.

Laboratories have not confirmed bird flu, let alone the presence of the H5N1 strain that experts are tracking, for fear it could mutate to become a human virus.

Testing at a laboratory in Britain was delayed by customs, said Necdet Akkoca, head of the Bornova Veterinary and Control Institute in western Turkey. Samples will be flown to London today and it could take one or two days for results, he said.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the EU should coordinate its bird flu response.

He said he would like a meeting of EU health and foreign ministers “so we can harmonise our reaction”.

“The H5N1 virus is in the process of scattering and is reaching our doorstep,” Douste-Blazy said.

In west Turkey, authorities quarantined a two-mile zone around two villages in Balikesir province, where flocks of fowl were culled.

The mayor’s office ordered farmers to hand over their fowl or face heavy fines. Authorities are worried villagers may hide their chickens or turkeys.

The quarantine is expected to last three weeks.

Agriculture Ministry official Beytullah Okay said the culling would end today.

Tests detected bird flu at a farm in Balikesir after 1,800 birds died last week. Scientists narrowed the disease down to an H5 type virus, but have not determined if it is the H5N1 strain that officials are worried about.