BIRD FLU: IN ISRAEL THREE FARM WORKERS TREATED FOR POSSIBLE INFECTION

Tel Aviv, 17 March (AKI) - In Israel, three workers at kibbutz farms where more than 1,000 turkeys have been found dead were hospitalised on Friday for possible bird flu infection. One of the men, a Thai national, is being treated in isolation at the Soroka medical centre in Beer Sheva. Lab tests carried out on some of the turkeys appear to confirm fears that they were infected with the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus, the report said.

Hospital administrators said test results for the three men, who worked on the two kibbutzes situated some 25 kilometres south of Jerusalem, would be ready by Sunday.

According to Haaretz the UN's World Health Organization does not view the test conducted on the turkeys, called PCR, as a definitive confirmation of the existence of the viral H5N1 viral strain.

While Israel is planning a second, stricter test, whose results are expected by Sunday, it has already ordered the killing of tens of thousands of birds suspected of being infected.