Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

[MHSC]

Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens


Thu 8 Feb 2007 15:20:06 GMT


ANKARA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Turkey's farm ministry confirmed on Thursday an outbreak of bird flu in the southeast of the country, just over a year after the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease killed four children in the region.

The ministry said in a statement bird flu was found on Thursday in a village in the Batman province. Authorities have so far culled 170 poulty to contain the disease.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L08370559

[yielddude]

Re: Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

Turkey Reports Bird Flu In Poultry; Tests To Determine StrainLast update: 2/8/2007 10:39:36 AMANKARA (AP)--Turkey's Agriculture Ministry on Thursday said 170 birds died of bird flu virus in southeastern Turkey over the past week and said tests were under way to determine whether it was the H5N1 bird flu strain. Authorities had already began culling the remaining birds in the village of Bogazkoy near the town of Gercus in southeastern Batman province, a statement from the ministry said. Turkey was particularly hard hit last January when 12 people were infected, four of whom died. The disease has claimed at least 165 lives worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, according to the WHO. Experts worry the virus, which remains hard for people to catch, will evolve into a form that passes easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most cases have been traced to contact with infected birds. (END) Dow Jones NewswiresFebruary 08, 2007 10:39 ET (15:39 GMT)

[yielddude]

Re: Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

Turkey reports bird flu in poultry, tests under way to determine whether it is H5N1 strain
The Associated PressPublished: February 8, 2007

ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey's Agriculture Ministry on Thursday said 170 birds died of the bird flu virus in southeastern Turkey last week and said tests were under way to determine whether it was the H5N1 strain.

Turkey was particularly hard hit last January when 12 people were infected and four died of the H5N1 strain. Authorities on Thursday said they have placed three villages under quarantine in southeastern Batman province, culling around 1,650 birds since Feb. 5.

The outbreak was first reported in the village of Bogazkoy near the town of Gercus on Feb. 5. The Agriculture Ministry on Thursday confirmed that samples tested positive for bird flu but stressed that further tests were needed to determine whether it was the deadly H5N1 strain.

Authorities were also culling fowl in the nearby villages of Aydinli and Ruzgarli and warned people against contact with birds. There was no report of any human infection in the area.

The disease has claimed at least 165 human lives worldwide since it began ravaging Asian poultry farms in late 2003, according to the World Health Organization. Experts worry the virus, which remains hard for people to catch, will evolve into a form that passes easily among humans, potentially sparking a pandemic. So far, most cases have been traced to contact with infected birds.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/08/europe/EU-GEN-Turkey-Bird-Flu.php

[HenryN]

Re: Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

H5N1 is likely and there will be related news out of Egypt in the near term.

[HenryN]

Re: Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

AFP News brief
Bird flu resurfaces among poultry in southeast Turkey

Bird flu has been detected among poultry in a village in the southeastern Turkish province of Batman, with experts still examining whether it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, the agriculture ministry said.
"There has been no finding so far to suggest that humans in the region may have been infected," ministry spokesman Osman Bengi told AFP.
A major bird flu outbreak claimed the lives of four children in January 2006 in a remote eastern region near the border with Iran, from where it quickly spread to more than one third of Turkey's 81 provinces.
The ministry said in a statement that a quarantine zone was imposed on an area with a radius of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) around the village of Bogazkoy, where 170 birds died, covering also two nearby villages.
The authorities were informed of chicken deaths in Bogazkoy on Monday.
"Detailed work is under way to determine the type of the disease," it said.
Veterinary experts have begun slaughtering birds in the village, which number 900 chicken, turkeys and ducks.
The disease is believed to have been brought by migratory birds.
The statement said the last case of bird flu in Turkey had been recorded on March 31 and the disease had been fully eliminated since then across the country.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070208155554.wgdva6aj&cat=null

[HenryN]

Re: Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens


2007/2/9
Reuters[/color]



Turkey's agriculture ministry confirmed on Thursday an outbreak of bird flu in the southeast of the country, just over a year after the deadly 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 a village in the Batman province. The ministry said it believed wild birds had spread the disease, which had so far killed 170 chickens in Bogazkoy.
"Strict quarantine measures have been taken in an area of 10 km (miles) around the village where the disease was identified," the ministry said, adding that culling of birds has started.
Veterinary experts were making tests to determine whether the virus was the deadly H5N1 strain.
CNN Turk quoted the local governor as saying there was no evidence of the disease spreading to the human population.
Turkey culled more than 1.3 million birds last year in an effort to contain the deadly H5N1 virus.
Scientists fear the H5N1 virus could mutate to a form easily transmitted from human to human. Because people would lack immunity, it could then sweep the world, killing millions.
Victims usually contract bird flu through direct exposure to diseased or dead poultry.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/latestnews/200729/44220.htm

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[HenryN]

Re: Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

Bird flu resurfaces among poultry in southeast Turkey


Bird flu has been detected among poultry in a village in the southeastern Turkish province of Batman, with experts still examining whether it is the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, the agriculture ministry said.

"There has been no finding so far to suggest that humans in the region may have been infected," ministry spokesman Osman Bengi told AFP.

A major bird flu outbreak claimed the lives of four children in January 2006 in a remote eastern region near the border with Iran, from where it quickly spread to more than one third of Turkey's 81 provinces.

The ministry said in a statement that a quarantine zone was imposed on an area with a radius of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) around the village of Bogazkoy, where 170 birds died, covering also two nearby villages.

The authorities were informed of chicken deaths in Bogazkoy on Monday.

"Detailed work is under way to determine the type of the disease," it said.

Veterinary experts have begun slaughtering birds in the village, which number 900 chicken, turkeys and ducks.

The disease is believed to have been brought by migratory birds.

The statement said the last case of bird flu in Turkey had been recorded on March 31 and the disease had been fully eliminated since then across the country.

http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/administration/afp-news.html?id=070208155554.wgdva6aj&cat=null

[HenryN]

Re: Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

Commentary at

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02080701/Bird_Flu_Turkey.html

[Mingus]

Re: Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6343859.stm

Last Updated: Thursday, 8 February 2007, 17:40 GMT

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=629 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Bird flu outbreak in south Turkey



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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA --><!-- S SF -->Turkish officials have confirmed that there has been an outbreak of avian influenza in the country's south-east.
Turkey's agriculture ministry said at least 170 chickens had died in a village in the province of Batman.
The ministry said it was checking if the bird deaths were caused by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. It is believed wild birds spread the disease.
The country culled more than 1.3 million birds last year in an effort to control the spread of the virus. <!-- E SF -->
"Strict quarantine measures have been taken in an area of 10km (6.2 miles) around the village where the disease was identified," the ministry said in a statement.
Turkey saw the first human deaths from H5N1 outside Asia, in January 2006, when 12 people were infected, four of whom later died.
More than 80 people have died of H5N1 bird flu since the disease's resurgence in December 2003 - most of them in South-East Asia. Experts point out that cross-infection to humans is still relatively rare and usually occurs where people have been in close contact with infected birds. But they say if the H5N1 strain mutates so it can be passed between humans, it could become a global pandemic.<!-- E BO -->



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[Mellie]

Re: Batman Province, Turkey confirms return of bird flu in chickens

http://www.recombinomics.com/News/02080701/Bird_Flu_Turkey.html

Bird Flu Re-emerges in Turkey
Recombinomics Commentary
February 8, 2007

The ministry said in a statement that a quarantine zone was imposed on an area with a radius of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) around the village of Bogazkoy, where 170 birds died, covering also two nearby villages.

The authorities were informed of chicken deaths in Bogazkoy on Monday.

"Detailed work is under way to determine the type of the disease," it said.

Veterinary experts have begun slaughtering birds in the village, which number 900 chicken, turkeys and ducks.

The disease is believed to have been brought by migratory birds.

The above comments on culling and linkage to migratory birds strongly indicate that the Qinghai strain of H5N1 has been reported again in Turkey. Turkey was one of the first countries in the region to report H5N1 in October, 2005. It was also the first country to confirm the Qinghai strain of H5N1 in people, in January of 2006.

Therefore, new reports of H5N1 in Turkey at this time of the year are not surprising. Egypt has been reporting H5N1 since September, and recently H5N1 was reported in Hungary, Krasnodar, England, and Pakistan. More reporting in the region is expected in the upcoming days.

The first human cases in Turkey had S227N, which is a change in the receptor binding that increases affinity for human receptors in the upper respiratory tract. Although high levels of H5N1 have been reported previously in the upper respiratory tract of patients in Vietnam and Indonesia, recent data indicates the receptor preference is associated with sneezing in ferrets, which may be related to ease of transmission.

The index case in Turkey was part of a large cluster. Although S227N was not detected in an isolate from the sister of the index case, this failure was likely linked to selection during virus isolation. Recently S227N in a patient in Vietnam was described, although S227N was only detected in one of three clones from that patient, even though all isolates were on dog kidney cells (MDCK).

S227N has also been reported in a patient in Egypt. H9N2 in the Middle East has donor sequences fro the acquisition of S227N, and the report of Qinghai isolates in the region with S227N raises the possibility that S227N will be detected again this season.

Other receptor binding domain changes in Qinghai isolates were detected last season in Iraq ands Azerbaijan, and this season in Egypt. More such changes are expected and are cause for concern.