Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said today, just prior to the Cabinet meeting, that the breakout is under control. He said there is no indication that it has spread to people, and that all means are being taken to ensure that it will not.
A Health Ministry worker carts dead turkeys away on a tractor.
Over 400,000 chickens are reportedly in the process of being destroyed, after it was found that a violent strain of the avian flu disease had killed large numbers of chickens in several coops. Tens of thousands of chickens and turkeys were destroyed over the weekend in Kibbutzim Holit and Ein HaShloshah in the western Negev. In addition, Kibbutz Kisufim is beginning the process of poisoning and burying of some 170,000 fowl, and chickens and turkeys are being killed in Moshav Sdei Moshe (near Kiyrat Gat) and Kibbutz Nachshon (west of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway).
More than 400,000 birds are in the process of being destroyed.
In the Israeli-Arab city of Tira, parents refused to send their children to the local school today, after several dead chickens were discovered in the schoolyard; an investigation into the cause of death is underway.
Chickens in Sdei Moshe's coops.
The Health Ministry has published information on the avian flu disease, also known as bird flu. The Ministry emphasizes that as the disease's name implies, it is contracted only by birds, and only in extremely rare cases by humans. Only those who have come in close contact with birds are susceptible, and no cases have been reported of one person catching the disease from another person. At present, however, people should refrain from visiting open-air chicken markets and farms, and should eat eggs and poultry only after thoroughly cooking them.
Cars leaving the community are hosed down to avoid spreading the H151 virus.
(Photos: Josh Shamsi, Arutz-7)