Turkey’s town on alert after bird flu outbreak

Bandirma’s Edincik neighbourhood in Turkey has been put under quarantine following bird flu outbreak.

After confirming the existence of bird flu in chickens in the region, officials have restricted access to the neighbourhood only to official vehicles.

Turkey’s health minister Mehmet Müezzinoglu said that the ministry will take necessary measures against the spread of the virus and have laid the groundwork for required precautions.

According to Müezzinoglu, bird flu lead to the death of about 40,000 chickens in a period of four months.

Today’s Zaman quoted the Dogan news agency as saying that after launching an investigation in the neighbourhood, the Bandirma Directorate of Food, Agriculture and Livestock collected samples from the chickens and sent them to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock’s laboratory in Istanbul’s Pendik district.

Several tests made at the lab revealed that bird flu is the main reason behind mass deaths of the chickens.

As part of protection measures, cleaning was done after destroying chickens even at other poultry farms which are expected to have been affected by the virus with disinfection and hygiene measures stepped up.

Despite the measures taken after the outbreak, a total of 70,000 chickens are believed to have been killed.

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Image: Bird flue has affected about 40,000 birds. Photo: courtesy of foto76/freedigitalimages.net.