Turkey has taken new measures to fight against a renewed outbreak of bird flu after the killer H5N1 virus killed three children and sickened dozens of others, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Sunday.

A National Coordination Center for Bird Flu has been established by the Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Health ministries, and it will be the only authority to update the public about new bird flu cases and issue official statements on the development of the disease, the report said.

The Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) presented proposals to help the poultry sector which has bore the brunt of bird flu.

TOBB proposed to the government to cull 20 million chickens after paying the producers in order to keep the demand-supply balance in the poultry sector.

TOBB also suggested that tax and electricity bills of the poultry sector be postponed, and a new credit mechanism be set up.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to set up a committee tasked with rescuing the poultry industry.

According to official statistics, the poultry industry contributes 3 billion U.S. dollars annually to the country's GDP ( gross domestic product).

However, poultry sales in the country have dropped 70 percent since human cases of bird flu were reported late last year, according to Kemal Akman, head of the poultry producers union.

The whole industry is expected to suffer a monthly loss of 40 million Turkish lira (about 30 million dollars), Akman told the Hurriyet newspaper on Saturday.

The new outbreak came after a first outbreak of the disease in October 2005 was put under control.

Source: Xinhua