Resentment grows in bird flu town

By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Kiziksa, western Turkey

As a precaution all bird stocks are being culled in Kiziksa

"Bring your poultry to the town square this evening for slaughter," a voice orders, wafting from loud speakers on Kiziksa town hall.

"Failure to comply could mean up to six months in jail."

The threat is the final stage of a cull in the remote rural town that is now famous here - home to Turkey's first ever outbreak of avian flu.

More than 5,000 birds have been killed so far - in this, the country's prime region for poultry.

Financial ruin

Mehmet Eksen says he knew something unusual was afoot when 50 of his turkeys fell sick and died last Monday. Another 100 died the next day.

Now my whole world has been turned upside down. I'm finished Mehmet Eksen Send us your comments

"I thought they'd been poisoned so I treated them with ayran (yoghurt drink) at first," Mehmet explains.

But they showed no response, so he reported the deaths on Wednesday - and vets have since slaughtered his entire stock.

"I sold my flat and invested my family's future in my business," Mehmet says. "Now my whole world has been turned upside down. I'm finished."

Samples taken from Mehmet's turkeys have confirmed the presence of the H5 flu virus. Specialists in Britain are now working to determine if this is H5N1 - the strain known to be fatal in humans.

Migration problem

Scientists here suspect Mehmet's turkeys were infected by birds flying south from Russia. They used to range freely on land close to Bird Paradise National Park - a popular stopping-off spot on the migration route.

The only other farmer who used that land is Sitki Boskurt. His turkeys showed no symptoms of flu but all 2,500 were slaughtered as a precaution.

"I lost 20 years worth of savings when they buried my birds," says Sitki, looking forlornly across the contaminated land. "I have no idea what to do now."

Like many men in Kiziksa, Sitki is sceptical there is avian flu here at all.

"No other animal here has fallen sick - just Mehmet's turkeys. So why should we suffer?" he asks.

But local officials are taking no chances.

"We are disinfecting everything," Mayor Ekrem Gokturk explains.

"When the cull is over we will spray the land from the air. But all these measures are just a precaution. There is nothing to worry about here."

Disbelief

Perhaps that is why the measures are so patchily applied.

There is a disinfection unit at the town entrance, but few vehicles are actually sprayed.

Some local farmers say the precautions are unnecessary

Access to Kiziksa is unrestricted - even to the affected farmland, and chickens, ducks and geese still wander the streets here freely. But their number is falling all the time.

As it grows dark, an elderly villager rides onto the central square on a bicycle carrying a white sack filled with wriggling chickens.

"I didn't want to go to prison so I thought it was wiser to bring the birds here," he says, throwing his sack into the back of a truck for gassing.

"But I did eat chicken for dinner tonight," he adds - almost defiant.

He is not the only one.

The vast majority of men in Kiziksa broke their Ramadan fast with chicken. They refuse to believe reports of bird flu, despite the laboratory reports.

"Why did no other birds die?" one man fumes. "Our healthy chickens are being slaughtered for nothing!"

Another insists Mehmet's turkeys were killed by a plague of fleas, instead.

The final test results are expected from Weybridge by Wednesday.

Until then, the Kiziksa sceptics have free rein. And Mehmet Eksen has a very nervous wait.