Hundreds of poultry were found dead in a kibbutz in southern Israel raising fears of the first outbreak of deadly bird flu in the Jewish state. "We have found hundreds of dead poultry and other sick birds on a kibbutz in the south of Israel, which makes us worried about the appearance of the bird flu virus," one agriculture ministry official told AFP.
"The initial tests indicated it was bird flu although these were not the final results and everything is still being tested in the laboratories", another official said.
Dozens of dead chickens were also found in communities close to the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz in the Negev desert east of the Gaza border, the website of the Haaretz daily reported.
Both the kibbutz and the adjacent communities were sealed off by the agricultural ministry, the website said.
Israel imposed a ban on all meat imports from the Gaza Strip on February 17 following the discovery of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in Egypt.
The outbreak of bird flu in Egypt on Israel's southern border saw flocks destroyed and transport restrictions imposed to stem the spread of a disease costing the industry around 1.7 million dollars a day.
