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BEERSHEBA (Israel), Sat. --- Israel detected its first case of H5N1 bird flu yesterday, saying the virus had killed thousands of turkeys and chickens on two farms. Israel authorities treated four people in hospital amid fears they had the virus, but Israeli media reported late yesterday that the Health Ministry said none of the four poultry workers was suffering from bird flu. Serbia said four children and a teenager from a bird flu affected area were in hospital after developing fever and flu-like symptoms. Bird flu has spread with alarming speed in recent weeks across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, stoking fears the virus could trigger a pandemic in which millions could die. |
Three people who worked in poultry co-ops at Israeli farms where the virus was discovered were admitted to isolation units at Soroka Medical Centre in the southern city of Beersheba. A fourth worker who had also been in contact with turkeys at a farm about 70km further north, near the town of Kiryat Gat, was admitted to hospital in Ashkelon. Two farms were confirmed to have infected poultry. Tests were being carried out on another two farms where H5N1 is suspected. Agriculture Ministry officials said starting tomorrow, tens of thousands of fowl in infected areas and their surroundings would be culled and that the carcasses would be buried in underground pits. |
In a rare act of co-operation, Israel was also testing dead fowl found in the West Bank and Gaza on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to try to control the spread of the virus. The four youngsters in hospital in Serbia come from a southwestern area close to the Bosnian border, where there was a suspected case of the H5N1 strain in a cockerel. In further evidence of bird flu spreading, Sweden confirmed it had found the H5N1 virus in a duck on a game farm, the European Union said. --- Reuters.
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