ISRAEL: H5N1 confirmed in Israeli as farmers cull thousands of birds believed to have been infected with flu

Record ID: 398173

  • Title: ISRAEL: H5N1 confirmed in Israeli as farmers cull thousands of birds believed to have been infected with flu
  • Date: 21st March 2006
  • Summary: (BN13) KIBBUTZ SDE MOSHE, ISRAEL (MARCH 19, 2006) (REUTERS) HEALTH WORKERS AT POULTRY FARM WHERE CHICKENS INFECTED WITH BIRD FLU WERE FOUND/ISRAELI HEALTH MINISTRY'S WORKERS SWEEPING DEAD CHICKENS FROM CHICKEN COOP'S FLOOR/WORKER DRIVING AWAY ON TRACTOR LOADED WITH DEAD CHICKENS (6 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 5th April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA9AGFX5PFJ4LSW3AICE2LZ25RO
  • Story Text: Israel said tests showed the avian flu virus that infected poultry in the south of the country is the lethal H5N1 strain.
    Israeli workers continued to cull thousands of turkeys and chickens on Sunday (March 19) as more and more poultry farms were found to be infected.
    The Agriculture Ministry, in a posting on its website late on Sunday, said the tests showed that H5N1 had reached Israel.
    It said further culling would be carried out at farms within a 3-km (2-mile) radius of the infected coops.
    Both Israeli Agriculture Minister Zeev Boim and Israeli Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in a cabinet meeting all measures would be taken to contain the disease and to ensure that it was eliminated.
    Olmert told his cabinet and reporters, that precautions were being taken and the flu had not spread to humans.
    The H5N1 strain which has spread across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, has killed at least 98 people world-wide since 2003.
    Although hard to catch, people can contract bird flu by coming into contact with infected birds.
    Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that could pass easily between humans, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.
    Four farm workers feared to have caught the virus had not been infected, the Health Ministry said.
    Three who worked at the two southern farms had been admitted to isolation units at a hospital. A fourth who had been in contact with turkeys at another farm was also hospitalised.
    Agricultural Ministry officials said workers had started culling 70,000 turkeys at the farms. Up to half a million turkeys and chickens would be killed, they said.
    Agriculture Ministry officials said workers were killing the turkeys in the infected areas by poisoning their drinking water. The carcasses would be buried in pits.
    Near the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian customs officials intercepted two trucks carrying poultry which had entered illegally.
    Palestinian officials said they would kill the 2,600 chickens in the trucks.
    Smuggling into Palestinian areas has grown due to demand for cheaper supplies of livestock.
    In a rare act of cooperation, Israel has been testing dead fowl found in the West Bank and Gaza on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
    Agriculture Ministry official Moshe Haimovich said he hoped officials from both sides could still work together once a government led by the Islamic militant group Hamas takes office.
    Israel says it will not deal with a Hamas-led government unless it recognised the Jewish state and renounced violence.
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