Some nine people have been kept under observation in hospital in Turkey for blood tests for suspected bird flu after the death of a number of their pigeons, state-run Anatolian news agency said today.
It said the nine people who had been in contact with the pigeons in the town of Turgutlu in western Turkey had been given blood tests after 40 of their pigeons had died in 15 days.
"The possibility of bird flu is very small," the agency quoted local health official Zita Tay as saying. "But the hospital in Turgutlu has shown the necessary sensitivity."
The strain of the virus, H5N1 is considered the biggest direct disease threat to humanity. It has killed about 60 people in Asia in recent years.
Experts estimate that if it acquires the ability to infect people easily and spread from person to person efficiently, the virus will make more than 25 million people seriously ill and kill as many as seven million.
