ANKARA, 17 October 2005 — Turkish labs were yesterday trying to determine the cause of chicken deaths in eastern regions close to Iran and Syria, as officials played down the possibility of deadly bird flu spreading there after its discovery in the northwest.
About 1,000 hens out of a flock of 6,000 perished Friday and Saturday in the province of Agri, at the border with Iran, prompting fears among local authorities that the birds, which were brought from the northwest, might have been infected with bird flu.
The lethal H5N1 subtype, which scientists fear may spark a global pandemic if it combines with human flu, was discovered earlier this month in a turkey farm in Kiziksa village in the northwestern province of Balikesir.
Ankara said that outbreak had been contained, and officials played down the possibility that the same virus might have appeared in the east, even though laboratory tests had yet to determine the definite cause of the suspected deaths. “It is certain that it is not avian flu,” Agriculture Ministry spokesman Faruk Demirel told AFP when asked about the chicken deaths in the Agri town of Patnos.
“Alarmed that it could be bird flu, veterinary experts examined the hens and found no sign of the virus,” he said.
Agri Governor Yusuf Yavascan also told AFP that “the initial indications showed it is not bird flu,” denying having said that the authorities feared the hens were infected.
The Aksam newspaper yesterday quoted Yavascan as saying that “the first impression is bird flu,” while television footage showed people in Patnos hurling dozens of dead chickens onto a truck using shovels.
The government is at pains to calm a nervous public amid plunging sales of poultry meat and a rush for anti-viral drugs.
Yavascan said no quarantine measures had been imposed in Patnos, but added that the owner of the dead chickens was ordered not to sell or come into contact with the surviving birds until the release of the tests, expected today. The hens are believed to have perished because of a lengthy journey from western Turkey in bad transportation conditions, he said.
