PARIS (AP) – Bird flu killed thousands of turkeys on a French farm, raising fears Friday of the European Union’s first outbreak of the lethal strain of the disease in commercial poultry and scaring Japan into banning foie gras.

Tests were pending on whether the turkeys had the deadly H5N1 strain, a development that could hobble the European Union’s largest poultry industry if the virus spread.

The spread of deadly flu to French commercial poultry would be the first infection of a European poultry farm – a sobering sign for developed countries that consider themselves well protected against the virus. France has been working for months to prepare for and prevent an outbreak.

So far, the only confirmed cases of H5N1 in France were in two wild ducks found dead near the turkey farm in the southeastern town of Versailleux.

Japan temporarily suspended imports of French poultry, including foie gras and other internal organs, according to the Japanese Embassy in Paris. Japan imported 1,664 tons of duck and other poultry meat and 416 tons of internal organs, including foie gras, from France in 2005.

France’s 200,000 farms raise 900 million birds a year. In 2004, the latest year for which figures were available, the French poultry sector generated more than $3.6 billion in revenues, or more than 20 percent of total EU poultry production.

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, speaking at a bird flu preparedness exercise in the southeastern city of Lyon, said Friday that France was “one of the best-prepared countries” for a possible flu pandemic. The exercise tested how police and medical teams would respond to the arrival of flu-stricken passengers at an airport.

Authorities sealed off the turkey farm, where more than 11,000 turkeys were kept, on Thursday. Local authorities said that up to 90 percent of the turkeys had died. Surviving birds were slaughtered.

The turkey farmer’s family members were quarantined in a nearby hospital, officials said. Vehicles passing through a protection zone around the farm were required to ride through a 100-foot-long trough of disinfectant.

Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau said authorities were perplexed about how the flu virus spread after France put a series of precautions in place to prevent its spread.

The government has ordered all domestic birds kept indoors. Bird vaccinations have been ordered in several regions. Protection zones have been set up around the site where the first infected duck was found last week in the town of Joyeux. And police were checking vehicles to ensure that no captive birds leave the region.

“What worries us,” Bussereau said, “is that this (turkey) farm … is located in the protection zone that we had put in place for the first duck in Joyeux.”

The outbreak could have been caused by infected droppings from wild ducks on piles of straw in turkey pens, France’s Poultry Industry Association said in a statement.

Claude Lassus, the veterinarian for the Versailleux farm, told France-Info radio that the turkey pens had been completely enclosed and hygiene rules were strictly followed. He said the farm was about a half-mile from where an infected duck had been found.

So far, the disease has not shown signs of spreading beyond the region.

In southwest France’s Landes region, foie gras producers decided Friday to vaccinate their geese and ducks, their professional association announced. Initially, 300,000 to 350,000 birds will be vaccinated there, likely starting next week.

Meanwhile, tests confirmed Slovakia’s first cases of H5N1 in wild birds, officials said Friday.

The strain was detected in a white grebe found in the capital, Bratislava, and in a peregrine falcon found at the border with Hungary.

German authorities said Friday that the deadly strain has been found in wild birds in two more German states.

In Vienna, Austria, EU health ministers said they would launch a public awareness campaign to ease growing fears over health and food safety.

Ministers feasted on a lavish lunch of duck breast, chicken legs, turkey meatballs and quail eggs in an attempt to convince consumers that poultry products are safe to eat.

No people in the EU have been reported infected with bird flu, which has killed at least 92 people elsewhere. Scientists fear the H5N1 strain, which has spread from Asia to 10 European countries and Africa, could mutate into a form that is easily transmitted between humans, sparking a pandemic.

AP-ES-02-24-06 1809EST

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