In Turkey, authorities began slaughtering poultry on farms near a western village as a precaution on Sunday, a day after the agriculture minister confirmed the country's first bird flu case at a turkey farm in the western city of Manyas.

BEIJING, Oct. 11 -- The World Health Organization says the likelihood of a human flu pandemic remains high unless stronger global collaboration is undertaken to combat the spread.

    In a trip to southeast Asian nations, WHO Director-General Dr. Jong Woo Lee, made such a warning, urging the world to prepare itself for the outbreak.

    "The burning question is, you know, will there be a human influenza pandemic. I believe, on behalf of WHO, I can tell you that there will be. And right now the only one condition missing is the virus that is rapidly transmitted from human to human," said Dr. Lee.

    The WHO predicts the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily among people. In a worst-case scenario, it says millions of people could die.

    The H5N1 strain of bird flu has swept through poultry populations in many parts of Asia since 2003 and has also infected humans, killing 60 people, mostly through direct contact with sick birds.

    Whilst traveling to Asia seeking international partnership, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt said that scientists have developed a vaccine based on bird flu samples from Vietnam. But the effective dosages are six to 12 times that used for combating the so-called seasonal influenza that has become common around the world.

    "The doctrine of the United States in dealing with pandemic flu is that if it happens anywhere, there is risk everywhere. And that we must form a network of collaboration to deal with it," said Leavitt. "As you know, 140 million birds have been affected. We have a lot of warning signs that are troubling. The likelihood of it happening is unknown to us but we view this not as a short term dilemma, but a long term problem. There will be at some point in the future another pandemic."

    Europe reported its first case of bird flu over the weekend, resulting in thousands of birds being slaughtered in Romania and Turkey.

(Source: CRIEGNLISH.com)