11,000 birds die in Israel.

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From the " Western daily press " (local to SW England)

By Price. b.price@...

www.westpress.co.uk

" The deadly H5NI strain of bird flu has spread to Israel, with about

11,000 Turkeys and chickens confirmed to have died in the country's

first outbreak of the disease.

Tests were ordered after the dead poultry were discovered on two

farms in Ein Hashlosa and Holit, next to the Gaza strip in the

Western Negev desert.

Up to five people who came into contact with the infected birds have

been admitted to hospital with flu-like symptoms, officials confirmed

yesterday.

A four mile quarantine zone has been imposed and hundreds of

thousands more birds are expected to be culled over the next few days.

Moshe Haimovitch, director of veterinary services at the agriculture

ministry, confirmed at least 11,000 birds had died at the farms.

Mr. Haimovitch said officials were preparing to kill a further

300,000 birds inside the quarantine zone around the two communities

over the next few days.

Health minister Yaakov Edri said yesterday morning 'In the coming

hours we will decide whether to destroy birds. If furthur steps are

required, we will take them,

We're talking about tens of thousands of birds'

Mr. Edri said Israel has vaccinations for the deadly avian flu for

just half a million of it's population of seven million.

The H5N1 strain of the virus has killed almost 100 people worldwide,

according to the World health organisation. It does not pose a large

scale threat to humans, as it cannot pass easily from one person to

another. However, experts fear the virus could mutate to gain this

ability, and in its new form trigger a flu pandemic, potentially

putting millions of human lives at risk.

The H5N1 strain has recently spread Asia to mainland Europe, Africa

and the Middle East. " ...