AVIAN FLU OUTBREAK in Turkey, and a smaller one in Romania:

SCIENTISTS were last night investigating the deaths of 2,000 birds in Turkey amid fears that cases of bird flu could turn into pandemic.

The birds belonged to a turkey farmer in a village near Balikesir, according to agriculture minister Mehdi Eker, who said: "Unfortunately we met with bird flu yesterday. But everything is under control, every kind of precaution has been taken so that it doesn't spread."

Officials from the Health Ministry and the Agriculture Ministry were sent to investigate.

Eker said the flu was likely carried by birds migrating from the Ural Mountains across Turkey and into Africa.

Cases of bird flu were also confirmed yesterday in Romania, which borders Turkey.

There are several strains of bird flu but only a few are deadly. Experts are tracking the H5N1 strain, for fear it could mutate and spawn a human flu pandemic.

H5N1 has swept through poultry populations in Asia since 2003, infecting humans and killing at least 60 people, mostly poultry workers, and resulting in the deaths of tens of millions of birds. The virus does not pass from person to person easily, but experts believe this could change if the virus mutates.

London's The Times suspects it'll be H5N1:

THE most deadly strain of avian flu is feared to have spread to Europe for the first time, infecting birds in Turkey and Romania this weekend.

Tests will be carried out in Britain this week to see whether confirmed cases of bird flu are of the deadliest H5N1 strain, which has killed 65 people in Asia and has already spread to Kazakhstan and Russia.

Officials from the Department of Health and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are closely monitoring the situation amid fears that the killer strain is spreading west. It is feared that the H5N1 strain could mutate, causing a flu pandemic.

If this turns out to be a 'benign' strain, it's only a matter of time until the real thing happens; we'll better hurry up and prepare.

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