Bird flu spotted in poultry in northern Turkey
(Adds quotes from official, background)
ANKARA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Turkish authorities said on Tuesday that they had spotted the deadly bird flu virus among chickens in a village in the northern Black Sea region.
The authorities did not confirm whether it was the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
The virus was found amoung dead chickens that were collected from Saz village in Zonguldak province on Saturday and following examinations the bird flu virus was detected, the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.
"All necessary measures have been taken around Saz village," it said without giving details.
Four people died from the H5N1 strain in eastern Turkey in 2006.
The village was put under quarantine and all animal movements were halted, Muzaffer Aydemir, the Agriculture Ministry's General Director of Protection and Control, told Kanal 24 television.
He said the authorities had not begun culling poultry in the region because the case looks like a limited one.
"This is a very limited case. Only spotted in chickens of a citizen who hunts wild birds. We are sure that the virus passed to the chickens from wild birds," Aydemir said.
He said the area surrounding the village was disinfected, but no other cases have been reported so far.
Consumers should not stop buying poultry products, he said and 12 teams of veterinary and other experts were working in the area to stop the disease spreading.
An outbreak of bird flu in the winter of 2006 hit Turkey's tourism industry and caused great damage to the poultry sector.
Turkey lies on the migratory route for wild birds flying south from Scandinavia and Siberia to north Africa for winter. (Reporting by Selcuk Gokoluk, Editing by Peter Blackburn)
