Major bird flu outbreak feared in Israel
About 11,000 turkeys have died in what Israeli officials suspect is the country’s first outbreak of the dangerous H5N1 strain of bird flu, and officials will decide within hours whether to destroy tens of thousands of other birds, they said today.
After preliminary tests, Health Minister Yaakov Edri told Army Radio there was a “very high chance that this is avian flu.”
“We are already pretty sure it is avian flu, but of course, there are more tests to be done,” Edri said.
An Agriculture Ministry spokeswoman, Dafna Yarisca, told The Associated Press it could take anywhere from hours to days until final results were in.
The suspected outbreak in Israel was centred on the Negev Desert farming community of Ein Hashlosha and the nearby community of Holit, where thousands of turkeys died.
Officials imposed a quarantine in a radius of seven kilometres (four miles) around the area, and were prepared to destroy flocks in a radius of three kilometres (two miles) if suspicions are confirmed, Edri said.
“In the coming hours we will decide whether to destroy birds; if further steps are required, we will take them. ... We’re talking about tens of thousands of birds,” he said.
No cases of human illness have been reported, Edri said. If deadly avian flu is confirmed, and in the unlikely event it spreads to humans, Israel has vaccinations for half a million of its seven million people, he said.
Health officials fear H5N1 could evolve into a virus that can be transmitted easily between people and become a global pandemic, but there has been no confirmation of this happening yet. At least 97 people have died from the disease worldwide, with most victims infected directly by sick birds.
Ein Hashlosha is about two kilometres (one mile) from central Gaza, and Holit is 15 kilometres (nine miles) to the southwest, about two kilometres (one mile) from southern Gaza.
Yarisca said Israel, in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, regularly tests chickens from Gaza for avian flu, and so far, the flocks there have aroused no cause for concern.
The H5N1 virus was detected in neighbouring Egypt last month, and Agriculture Minister Zeev Boim said yesterday that the death of the birds in southern Israel might indicate the disease entered Israel from Egypt.
The H5N1 strain has killed or forced the slaughter of tens of millions of chickens and ducks across Asia since 2003, and recently spread to Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Officials said there was no danger of infection from eating cooked chicken, turkey or eggs.
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