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

The minister said that the farmer 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 Center of Veterinary Institutes, which found one of nine samples to be H5 positive.

New samples will be taken and analyzed by the Thessaloniki Center of Veterinary Institutes to confirm the accuracy of results.

Greece's neighboring countries Romania and Turkey have reported cases of bird flu.

The Greek government has ordered 200,000 boxes and 250,000 kilos of a special antibiotic powder recommended for bird flu as well as other drugs against the epidemics.

Greece has proposed to host a conference of health ministers from Balkan and Black Sea countries early next month to coordinate response measures to the avian flu threat.

Source: Xinhua