Minister of Agricultural Development and Foods Evangelos Basiakos announced on Monday that a turkey on a small farm on the island of Inouses in the eastern Aegean tested positive to the H5 virus, adding Greece to the list of countries with reported cases of bird flu.

According to Basiakos, the farmer, Dimitris Komninaris, reported suspicious symptoms he had detected in the turkeys, some of which had died, on October 13.

Chios' Veterinerary Service took samples from the dead birds and sent them to the Athens Centre of Veterinary Institutes, which found one of nine samples to be H5 positive.

The turkeys were free-range, a fact that is causing Chios' Veterinary Service concern.

Komninaris had lost 30 turkeys last year as well, due to illness, but the causes were not investigated at the time.

A veterinary team, headed by the Veterinary Agency's Supervisor Yiannis Karydas, is on the island taking new samples from live birds. The samples will be sent for analysis to the Thessaloniki Centre of Veterinary Institutes, while birds' health will be monitored closely.

Source: Athens News Agency

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