Israel scrambled to contain its first outbreak of deadly bird flu buoyed by the news that four farm workers admitted to hospital had not contracted the virus from infected fowl. A ban on all exports of poultry products remained in force as agriculture ministry vets began culling hundreds of thousands of chickens and turkeys in four infected farms across southern and central Israel.
Quarantine orders sealed off a seven-kilometre (four-mile) radius around the four communities in the southern farming belt east of the Gaza Strip, and between Jerusalem and the commercial capital of Tel Aviv.
The four farm workers, one of them a Thai migrant, had been placed in hospital isolation units as a precautionary measure Friday after tests on dead fowl confirmed the lethal H5N1 strain that is deadly to humans.
"The results of the examinations show that these four people have not contracted the bird flu virus," health ministry spokesman Inbal Yaacov told AFP.
Officials moved swiftly to reassure an anxious Israeli public and shore up an agriculture sector which has an ideological importance to the Jewish state far greater than its barely two percent share of gross domestic product.
"At this stage, we don't think there are any grounds to speak of a pandemic," Shimon Pokamonsky of the agriculture ministry veterinary department told public radio.
In the four infected farms -- Ein Hashlosha and Holit near the Gaza border, Sdeh Moshe near the southern port of Ashkelon, and Nakhshon close to Jerusalem -- heaps of dead fowl lay six metres (20 feet) high.
Inevitably in the conflict-ridden Middle East, the outbreak fueled rumours that the Palestinians were to blame. But Pokamonsky formally denied suggestions the virus had been brought into the Jewish state in poultry smuggled in from the Gaza Strip.
And the Palestinians vowed to work together with Israel to contain the outbreak despite a collapse in relations since a controversial deadly army raid on a West Bank prison Tuesday.
"The Palestinian Authority is cooperating with Israel and the World Health Organization (WHO) to tackle any suspected outbreak," a health ministry official told AFP in Gaza.
"No case of bird flu has been detected so far in the Palestinian territories," the official added.
Israel banned all meat imports from the Gaza Strip on February 17 following the discovery of the deadly H5N1 strain in birds in neighbouring Egypt.
On Saturday, Israel's southern neighbour confirmed its first death from the virus in humans.
The H5N1 strain of bird flu, its most aggressive form, has killed nearly 100 people worldwide, according to the WHO, and seen millions of birds destroyed amounting to huge losses for farmers.
In Israel the agriculture sector has an ideological importance far beyond its contribution to the economy because of the historic role played by pioneer farmers in the establishment of the Jewish community in Palestine prior to the declaration of Israeli statehood in 1948.
The agriculture ministry ordered a halt to all poultry exports Friday in line with international veterinary health agreements.
The move came shortly after the European Union announced a ban on all imports of live poultry, poultry meat, eggs and poultry products from Israel.
The Israeli authorities believe the virus was brought in by migratory birds making their spring passage from Africa to Europe. Tens of thousands of storks passed through Israel earlier this week at the start of a season which will see an estimated half a million wild birds pass.
