Bird flu was detected at a poultry farm in a village of Tisova in the eastern part of the Czech Republic after nearly a third of a 6,000-head turkey flock had perished earlier in the week, reports said Thursday, according to dpa. A team of epidemiologists, firefighters and soldiers is cull the remaining animals on Thursday and then disinfect the farm currently cordoned off by the police, CT24 news channel reported. Epidemiologist Zbynek Semerad told CT24 that tests are to determine later Thursday whether the detected strain is H5N1, known to be deadly to humans, or a less dangerous one. It was the first time that the disease had been detected at a Czech poultry breeder, reports said. Prior to the Tisova case, only wild swans infected with the H5N1 virus had been found on Czech territory.
