Istanbul - A Turkish hospital has kept nine people under observation and tested them for possible bird flu after the death of 40 of their pigeons in 15 days, state-run Anatolian news agency said on Friday.
European Union experts held crisis talks on the spread of bird flu on Friday, a day after health officials confirmed the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in Turkey.
"Acting on a tip-off, we took the family which owned the pigeons and the neighbours who made the tip-off, in all nine people, to the hospital," the agency quoted local health official Osman Ozturk as saying.
He said blood tests had been taken from the two families in the western town of Turgutlu and some of the dead birds had been sent away for testing as well.
Continues Below ↓
"There is no sign of illness in the nine people, but we have taken all the people who have been in contact with the birds under observation. The houses of the two families have also been disinfected," he said.
Turkish veterinary teams have so far killed more than 8 000 turkeys, chickens, geese and pigeons in the area around the farm near the Aegean Sea which last week suffered Turkey's first outbreak of bird flu. No other cases have so far been reported.
On Thursday, the European Commission said the strain of bird flu found in Turkey had been identified as H5N1, the virulent virus that has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003 and forced the slaughter of millions of birds.
Experts fear H5N1 could mutate into a virus which spreads easily among humans, possibly killing millions of people.
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
