Four people test negative for bird flu in Israel

JERUSALEM, Mar 18 (Reuters) Four people in Israel suspected of having bird flu have tested negative for the virus, the health ministry said today, after the country detected its first cases of the H5N1 strain.

Two Israeli farms were confirmed yesterday to have infected poultry. Tests were being carried out on another two farms where H5N1 is suspected.

Bird flu has spread across Europe, Africa and parts of Asia, stoking fears the virus could mutate into a form that could easily pass from one person to another, triggering a pandemic in which millions could die.

Hospitals in Israel have been put on alert for patients arriving with symptoms of the H5N1 virus.

Three people who worked in poultry coops at the farms in southern Israel where the virus was discovered were admitted to isolation units at a hospital in the south.

A fourth worker who had also been in contact with turkeys at a farm about 70 km further north was admitted to another hospital.

''The results for the four were negative for bird flu,'' a health ministry spokeswoman said. ''At the moment I do not know of any further people who have been taken to hospital.'' Agriculture Ministry officials have said tens of thousands of fowl in the infected areas and their surroundings would be culled and the carcasses buried in underground pits.

Shimon Pokomonsky, an expert on bird diseases from the agriculture ministry, told Israel Radio the culling of the birds at the two farms, which are close to the Gaza Strip, was expected to be completed today.

He added that tests were continuing at two other farms, one of which was in the Latrun area, close to Jerusalem.

''Until now we are speaking about four incidents in total,'' he said. ''At this stage we estimate it not spreading.'' Separately in the West Bank city of Hebron, Palestinian customs officials intercepted two trucks carrying poultry which had entered illegally. Palestinian officials said they would kill 2,600 chickens in the trucks.

''We want to get rid of these chickens because they came from Israel, which is an infected area,'' deputy Hebron commander Musbah al-Baba said. ''We do not know for sure they are infected, we are just taking precautionary measures.'' Smuggling into Palestinian areas has grown due to demand for cheaper supplies of livestock.

In a rare act of cooperation, Israel was testing dead fowl found in the West Bank and Gaza on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to try to control the spread of the virus.

REUTERS DKS PM1622