On 3 January, the veterinary institute in the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture confirmed hat the potentially deadly H5N1 virus was found in dead birds at a local zoo in an isolated location in the town of Binyamina. A teacher at a nearby kindergarten noticed the dead birds and alerted the veterinary services.
Professor Samuel Rishpon, chairman of the Haifa district health department told reporters on the same day "Our investigation indicates that none of the children, parents or the staff in the kindergarten came in direct contact with the birds, yet we've instructed the hospitals in the Haifa area to be on alert for children showing symptoms common of chicken flu."
Staff at the kindergarten were given preventive treatment and are under observation.
The Israeli veterinary services immediately began culling all birds within a 3km radius, in accordance with international health regulations.
Quarantine orders were issued to poultry farms within a 10km radius. Instructions to the general public on how to deal with avian flu were published on all news sites and television channels.
Israeli authorities are constantly updating their methods of dealing with avian flu after the March 2006 avian flu outbreak which was successfully contained. At the time 1.25 million birds were culled in 13 different locations. No humans were infected, according to the health authorities.
Dafna Yurista, a spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture said that "None of the samples from the culled birds showed positive results and the ministry will compensate chicken farm owners whose poultry has been culled."
Eynav Shimron-greenbaum, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry issued a statement on Thursday stressing that the infected birds were contained in one chicken enclosure and, therefore, the danger of contamination was minimal. The ministry is monitoring the situation, added Shimron-greenbaum.
The ministry has also said that in order to contain the disease from spreading into the Occupied Palestinian Territories (oPt), it will cooperate with the Palestinian Authority’s veterinary services if needed, including analyzing samples from oPt in Israeli veterinary service laboratories.
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