(www.cihannews.com) вЂ" Bird flu has been detected among chickens in a village in southeastern Turkish province of Batman, said a statement released on Thursday from Turkish Agriculture Ministry.
A total of 170 birds died of bird flu virus in the village of Bogazkoy near the town of Gercus in Batman over the past week, according to the ministry.
The statement went on to say that tests were under way to determine whether it was the pathogenic H5N1 bird flu strain, reports Trend.
The statement also said that the virus was believed to be spread through will birds immigrating through Turkey and stressed that there were no findings so far to suggest that humans in the region might have been infected.
A quarantine was imposed on an area with a radius of 10 kilometers shortly after 170 chickens were reported to have died. Local authorities have already began culling the remaining birds in the village.
The latest bird flu case of bird flu in Turkey was recorded on March 31, 2006 and Health Ministry announced that it had been fully eliminated since then.
Initial burst of the disease in Turkey was detected in October 2005 in western Turkish province of Balikesir on a turkey farm. After 21 days of quarantine, Ministry of Agriculture announced that the virus no longer existed in the area only to witness its reappearance at the beginning of 2006.
Four children, three of them from the same family, out of 12 people infected of bird flu died in Turkey while at least 165 people have died from the flu all over the world since the appearance of the disease in 2003 in Asia.