German authorities confirmed Wednesday that the H5N1 bird flu virus had been found at a poultry farm in Leipzig, the first such case on a German farm since 1959. Officials in the eastern state of Saxony established a 3-kilometer containment zone around the property and ordered the culling of approximately 15,000 turkeys.
It remained unclear whether the strain found in turkeys that died Tuesday was the highly pathogenic form of H5N1, which has killed more than 100 people, mostly in Asia, since 2003. That dangerous variant had already turned up in wild birds across seven German states, and last month was identified in a dead buzzard discovered on an apartment balcony in Berlin.
Earlier, three cats and a stone marten on the Baltic island of Ruegen were found infected with the most virulent form of the virus. The presence of H5N1 in mammals raised concerns about potential spread to humans, though World Health Organization experts said such transmission appeared unlikely.
Germany's poultry industry had already reported losses of millions of dollars as consumer demand dropped amid ongoing fears about the outbreak.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in April 2006, in its own words.