The H5N1 bird flu virus has for the first time been detected on a poultry farm in Germany, the ministry for social affairs in the eastern state of Saxony said.
A spokeswoman for the ministry, Elke Reinking, said Wednesday that a special protection zone of three kilometres (1.9 miles) had been drawn around the poultry farm in Leipzig, where orders have been given to slaughter some 15,000 turkeys.
It was not yet clear whether the disease detected in dead turkeys on the farm on Tuesday was the highly pathogenic form of H5N1 which can prove fatal to humans, the ministry said.
From AFP via Yahoo!