Bird flu found in West Bank settlement

The H5N1 strain was found in the Beqaot settlement in the Jordan Valley just across the river from neighbouring Jordan, the Israeli agriculture ministry said Thursday.

A quarantine has been imposed on a farm in the settlement where some 20,000 chickens were being raised.

The Palestinian agriculture ministry said it would start culling chickens in a three-kilometre (two-mile) radius around the settlement to try to prevent the infection spreading across the West Bank.

Israeli tests already confirmed the deadly strain in the Gaza Strip Wednesday.

"We have undertaken tests and have confirmed that the H5N1 virus is present in a poultry farm" in the centre of the Palestinian territory, said the ministry's head of veterinary services, Moshe Haimowitch.

Israeli and Palestinian doctors, veterinarians and agriculture experts met late Wednesday at the Erez crossing, between Gaza and Israel, to work together to fight against the H5N1 outbreak.

Israel was set to provide the Palestinians with emergency aid in the form of 1,000 high-protection outfits as well as disposable gloves, public radio said.

Deadly bird flu has already been found in poultry on six different farms across southern and central Israel but so far no cases have been detected in humans.

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