Battling to limit avian flu

With all 14 confirmed avian flu cases in Turkey contracted from infected birds, containing the outbreaks of the highly contagious infection among fowl became the national priority on Tuesday. "All of the cases confirmed by the laboratory are people who had close contact with infected, sick or dead poultry. The major point now is to control the outbreak in poultry as it is the source of infection in humans," Guenael Rodier, a senior specialist for communicable diseases with the World Health Organization (WHO), said from the eastern Turkish city of Van. The Turkish government said it was taking the threat of avian flu very seriously and had already culled more than 300,000 birds, mainly in the east of the country, where the first human infections were reported last week. "We are still evaluating the situation but we are serious about a regional or even national cull of all birds outside commercial premises," Nihat Bakdil, Deputy Secretary of State in the Ministry of Agriculture, told IRIN in the capital, Ankara. Avian influenza, or 'bird flu', is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and less commonly, pigs, according to the WHO. Avian influenza viruses are highly species specific, but in some cases infect humans. The H5N1 killer strain of the virus killed at least two in Turkey over the past few days, while it has claimed the lives of more than 70 people in Asia since 2003. The WHO has been supporting the Turkish government in its efforts to stem the spread of the disease and praised the national response. "On the health side the response has been pretty good. The ministry [of health] has been very engaged and transparent, we have access to all the information. And the collaboration with the veterinary sector has also started." Turkish authorities have started an urgent awareness raising campaign in an effort to get the message across via newspapers, television and radio, urging the population to follow basic hygiene norms to avoid the infection. Further long-term measures are being sought to stem the killer disease. The agriculture ministry is expected to submit an urgent proposal to parliament to ban the keeping of all backyard poultry in the country. Recep Akdag, Turkish health minister visiting Van, where the first human bird flu cases were reported over a week ago, said to the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper on Tuesday: "Our people should definitely abandon backyard poultry. From now on, the notion of backyard eggs should be history." For many rural households in Turkey, particularly in its eastern parts where poverty and a lack of development remains a major issue, backyard fowl are a key source of livelihood.