The H5N1 bird flu has not been detected in any humans in the European Union...

The health and veterinary authorities in the Czech Republic are getting increasingly concerned about the number of turkeys that have been infected with the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus over the last few days. The Czech Republic had previously been completely bird flu free and had not had one documented case of the virus in any type of bird. This case has come as a big surprise for the Czech veterinary authorities who have had to slaughter thousands of birds at a turkey farm in Tisova which is very close to the capital city of Prague. In all it is expected that around a 6,000 turkeys will be killed.

The health authorities of the Czech Republic acted very quickly and the professionally to the bird flu outbreak and bird flu samples were immediately sent to Czech laboratories to confirm that the outbreak was in fact the extremely dangerous H5N1 bird flu virus, and not some other less dangerous variant of it like the H2N7 bird flu virus that was found in northern Wales earlier this month.

The Czech health authorities also decided that any people who had been in contact with the birds at the farm or who had been near to the farm should receive the flu drug Tamiflu as an extra precaution and advised them to be vigilant for any flu like symptoms. The H5N1 bird flu has not been detected in any humans in the European Union and the authorities are keen that it stays that way.

The Czech samples of this new outbreak of the bird flu virus will be sent to the World Health Organisation so that scientists can examine it and see whether it is mutating or changing in any way that could make it more dangerous to the human population of the world.