Bird Flu Watch: Bulgaria, Turkish border

Rapid response will probably save the day.

Bulgaria revealed today it has detected bird flu in three farms near the Turkish-Greece border, and fearing that it may be the H5N1 strain, domestic chickens have been slaughter or culled and seven villages are in quarantine.

“It’s proven that it’s bird flu, we don’t know the exact strain yet. We are working on the presumption that it is a highly pathogenic strain of H5N1,” Agriculture Minister Nihat Kabil told reporters for Reuters.

“Mass deaths among domestic birds have been registered in the village of Slanchogled. Rapid tests established a bird flu virus. We are putting the village under quarantine before final results show the strain,” Kabil said.

Further, eggs and poultry in Slanchogled will be destroyed, the roads will be disinfected and veterinarians are ordered to monitor and cordon off a 6-mile area around the site of the outbreak to prevent the virus from spreading to nearby villages. The two people who came into contact with the infected birds have been put under medical watch.

Earlier this year, four cases of H5N1 infection in wild swans were found in Bulgaria but this would be the country’s first bird flue case in domestic birds.

This quick and aggressive response by the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture will definitely help in preventing an outbreak among humans and other domestic fowls.

[Source: Reuters]

Tags: avian influenza, bird flu deaths, Bulgaria, Europe