In western Turkey, military police set up roadblocks at the entrance of a village near Balikesir. A two-mile radius was quarantined as veterinarians and other officials began destroying poultry at two turkey farms.
It was not clear how many animals would be destroyed, but the Anatolia news agency
Other fowl and stray dogs in the village would also be killed as a precautionary measure, said Nihat Pakdil, undersecretary of Turkey's Agriculture Ministry.
Bird flu was detected at a turkey farm after some 1,800 birds died this week, the Anatolia news agency
Turkey's Agriculture Ministry confirmed the outbreak Saturday and said the disease was believed to have spread from migratory birds on their way to Africa from Russia's Ural mountains.
Scientists have apparently narrowed the disease in Turkey down to an H5 type virus - the family of the bird flu virus that experts fear could be the source of a potential global pandemic among humans - but have not narrowed it further to determine whether it is the H5N1 strain that health officials are particularly worried about.
Cases of bird flu were also confirmed Saturday in Romania, where a total of 40,000 birds are expected to be slaughtered as a precaution. Authorities there said no new cases of bird flu have yet to be confirmed.
On Friday, Romanian authorities reported the country's first suspected bird flu cases, after three domestic ducks allegedly died of bird flu in the Ceamurlia village in eastern Romania.
On Saturday, a dead swan found on a beach in the Black Sea port of Constanta also tested positive for bird flu antibodies.
