Bird flu virus detected in Israel

- The virus of bird flu has been detected in a farm in a kibbutz in northern Israel, said Wednesday an official at the Israeli Ministry of Health.

•    The H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza was found in chicks from a poultry house of Kibbutz Ein Shemer near Hadera, south of Haifa (north), said Moshe Haïmowitch Chief Veterinary Officer at the Ministry of Health, quoted the Israeli army radio.
  
     The latter was ordered to isolate the henhouse in question within a radius of 3 km, to slaughter some 43,000 chickens, and to conduct systematic reviews to avoid any risk of an outbreak.
  
     In March 2006, the European Union banned imports of live poultry, poultry meat and eggs from Israel, where many farms had been contaminated by the H5N1 virus.
  
     Some 1.4 million chickens had been then slaughtered in Israel.
      
  Ennaharonline/ M. O.