PALESTINIANS INVITING BIRD FLU

Gaza farmers refuse to cull chickens in bird flu battle

GAZA CITY (AFP) - Farmers in the Gaza Strip where poultry have been hit by a bird flu outbreak are refusing to cull their chickens before receiving financial compensation. “The farmers are not letting us into their coops. They don’t want to kill their chickens and are demanding compensation,” Azzam Tbeileh, the deputy Palestinian agriculture minister, told AFP. He warned that the authorities may have to resort to the use of force in the wake of the detection last week of the potentially deadly strain of the H5N1 strain of bird flu.