ISRAEL: Israeli authorities suspect bird flu killed turkeys on two farms in southern Negev region

Record ID: 398230

  • Title: ISRAEL: Israeli authorities suspect bird flu killed turkeys on two farms in southern Negev region
  • Date: 17th March 2006
  • Summary: EXTERIOR VIEW OF FARM
  • Embargoed: 1st April 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA6F6DJ0ZQF4WI3OHY1R6ZS2HVV
  • Story Text: Israel suspects bird flu killed turkeys on two farms in its southern Negev region although there were no test results yet, Agricultural Minister Zeev Boim said on Thursday (March 16).
    Boim said the ministry had quarantined the area, which lies near the densely populated Gaza Strip.
    There have been no confirmed cases of the bird flu virus in Israel or Palestinian areas, although authorities have looked into several false alarms.
    "Three days ago we discovered one of the sick (turkeys). There were 27 deaths. It is very strange, yesterday they sent some to be examined at the lab Brtuvia, our doctor took some blood samples and other and this evening we got a message that there is a possibility that we have the virus H5 (H5N1)," Lewis Rotman from Kibutz Shlosha said.
    The Haaretz newspaper and Israel Radio, quoting medical sources, had said initial tests showed the dead turkeys had the virus, although it still had to be isolated to confirm if it was the deadly H5N1 strain.
    More than a thousand poultry had died in the area, Haaretz reported on its website (www.haaretz.com).
    Israel Radio reported a 38-year-old man who slaughtered poultry for a living was being tested for possible bird flu in the northern coastal city of Haifa. He had been placed in an isolation ward, it said.
    The H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread with alarming speed in recent weeks across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia.
    The more it spreads, the greater the fears of the virus mutating into a form that could easily pass from one person to another, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.
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