German authorities planned yesterday to cull 15,000 turkeys after bird flu
virus was detected at a poultry farm in the east of the country, local report
said.
Scientists said they had detected the H5 subtype of the virus in at least one
dead bird at the farm in the state of Saxony.
Further tests were needed to determine whether it was the deadly H5N1 strain,
German new agency DPA quoted the scientists assaying.
This was the first case of bird flu at a commercial poultry farm in Germany,
where hundreds of wild birds and two kinds of mammal have died of the virus
since it was discovered in early February.
The strain was first detected among wild birds on the German island of Ruegen
in the Baltic Sea, but it has rapidly affected six states.
The German government announced at the end of last month that it would spend
60 million euros (73 million US dollars) on bird flu research in the next four
years, hoping to develop a vaccine for humans soon.
The H5N1 strain has killed more than a hundred people globally.
