By IRNA-Xinhua
Warsaw : Three poultry farms northwest of Warsaw were cordoned off after the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu was found in turkeys, local media reported on Saturday. It is the country’s first reported case of the deadly virus in domestic birds, officials said.
The outbreak occurred near the city of Plock, some 100 kilometers northwest of capital Warsaw, Poland’s chief veterinary officer Ewa Lech said on television Lech said there are plans to cull 4,000 birds, adding that the virus was most likely brought to Poland by migrating ducks, geese or swans and an area within a 3-km radius of the outbreak had been cordoned off.
“There is no cause for alarm,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on television.
“I am in touch with the interior and health ministers as well as veterinary officials in charge.
“This is not the kind of threat we had several years ago Bird flu was discovered in Poland in early 2006, in wild swans, near the city of Torun.”
The World Health Organization said the H5N1 type of bird flu has claimed more than 200 human lives across the world in 2003, most of whom in Asia.