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Turkey culls birds to curb flu
13/01/2006 14:07 - (SA)
Seslitas - Villagers in Turkey's southeast, where the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu is spreading, handed over their chickens and other fowl for slaughter on Friday and said they were ready to stop raising birds to minimise the chances of getting infected.
The task of destroying poultry as a precaution was getting easier as local residents became more aware of the health crisis sweeping Turkey, said workers in Seslitas, where three children died of the H5N1 strain.
"From now on, birds are finished for us. We won't raise them," said Yildirim Elci, 25, who was helping his family hand over birds they had.
"Our chickens aren't sick, but we're giving them up," said another villager, Fatma Ciftci, 45, just before signing a form that would allow her to receive reimbursement for her animals.
Turkish authorities stepped up the slaughter of chickens, geese and turkeys this week as the number of people infected with H5N1 climbed to 18.
The agriculture ministry said on Thursday that about 355 000 birds had been destroyed, and it urged Turks in infected areas to hand over their fowl.
Keeping poultry in gardens is a way of life for rural Turks, and many depend on the meat and eggs. But as bird flu spread rapidly across the country, some frightened locals were even killing their birds themselves - despite official warnings not to do so - in an attempt to shield themselves from the disease.
Workers going house to house to collect birds for culling have encountered resistance, but in Seslitas, many villagers said they were no longer reluctant to turn over their fowl.
"They're not that important," said Kahraman Duman, 56. "Our health is more important."
The World Health Organisation has stressed that so far, there have been no cases involving person-to-person infection.
But health experts still fear the virus could spawn a more potent strain easily passed between people and trigger a pandemic capable of killing millions.
WHO experts were carefully monitoring genetic adaptations in H5N1 samples from Turkey to see if the virus was adapting to a form that would more easily infect people.
- AP
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