A ban on the import of live poultry and feathers from Turkey was imposed by the European Commission on Monday after 1 870 birds died of avian flu last week.
Amid fears that migrating birds are carrying a deadly strain of the virus from East Asia, the restrictions were rushed into place on Monday night. The commission, which has already placed similar restrictions on poultry from Russia, Kazakhstan and large parts of Asia, acted after the turkeys died at a farm in the area of Manyas near the Aegean and Marmara seas. A 3,2km quarantine zone was imposed around the affected farm and at least 2 500 turkeys were culled.
Arif Zorlu, a local veterinary surgeon, said the measures were preventing the spread of the disease.
”The precautionary measures are continuing but this outbreak of disease is not an epidemic,” he told Reuters. ”It is not spreading at the moment. To prevent any spread, our technical team in the area is killing poultry and we will continue doing so for 21 days to avert the possibility of an epidemic.”
All sides acted quickly because of fears that the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu may be spreading to Europe from Asia, where 60 people have died. Officials became anxious last week when three ducks died of bird flu in Romania, though it later transpired that they had caught a less dangerous version of the virus. Results of tests in Romania and Turkey should be known by Wednesday and the commission said it would act immediately on those findings.
But the scale of the poultry deaths in Turkey — and early signs that the bird flu may be serious — prompted Monday’s action by the European Commission.
Philip Tod, a spokesperson for the commission, said: ”Bird flu is a genuine risk and this is why the commission is working together with member states to bring up-to-date emergency plans for bird flu. The virological analyses have confirmed that the virus is present [in Turkey], but at the moment we are not able to say what type of virus we are talking about — how pathogenic it is.”
Officials will want to study the affected areas in Turkey and Romania because they both lie on routes taken by migrating birds — the most likely carriers of the disease.
Mehmet Deli, a Turkish ornithologist, told Reuters: ”Manyas is an important destination for migrating birds. I think the bird flu came by this route, so migration has to be closely monitored in Turkey.”
Romania’s Danube delta, where the ducks died last week, contains some of Europe’s largest wetlands, which attract migratory wild birds from Russia, Scandinavia, Poland and Germany. Russia has been badly affected by the deadly form of bird flu, though this is not yet believed to have crossed the Ural mountains into European Russia.
The tough measures came as the United States warned that governments must work harder to avoid a bird-flu pandemic spreading to humans.
Michael Leavitt, the US Health Secretary, said in Bangkok: ”Three times in this century we have experienced pandemic influenza and they will come again. We must be ready. Our preparations are not yet complete nor are they adequate. Whether or not H5N1 is the virus that will ultimately trigger such a pandemic is unknown to us,” he told a news conference.
”The probability is uncertain. But the warning signs are troubling. Hence we are responding in a robust way.”
Leavitt is leading a group of bird-flu experts from the United Nations and US that will visit Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, where 41 people have died from bird flu.
One expert accompanying Leavitt warned that there may be a shortage of vaccines for humans if there is a major outbreak.
Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, told Reuters: ”We don’t even have enough right now to handle a situation in the US. Supply and production capability needs to be addressed before we can even think about deploying samples in distant areas that might have an outbreak.” — Guardian Unlimited Â