Turkey reports H5N1 bird flu outbreak in northern province

PARIS (Reuters) – Turkey has reported an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu virus in a backyard in the northern province of Kastamonu, the first case of the highly pathogenic strain in seven years, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday.

The Turkish farm ministry said in a report posted on the OIE website that 35 backyard poultry died in the outbreak which started on April 23 and that another 92 were destroyed within a three kilometer radius.

Monitoring activities continued, it added.

H5N1 bird flu, which first infected humans in 1997 in Hong Kong, has since spread from Asia to Europe and Africa and has become entrenched in poultry in some countries, causing millions of poultry infections and several hundred human deaths.

(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, editing by Gus Trompiz)