BRUSSELS, Jan. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The European Commission (EC) announced on Saturday that the bird flu outbreak in eastern Turkey has been proven to be high pathogenic type H5N1.

    "The European Commission has been informed that test results from the EU laboratory at Weybridge this morning confirmed that the avian influenza virus, which has recently caused an outbreak in poultry in eastern Turkey, is a high pathogenic type H5N1," said an EC press release emailed to Xinhua.

    The executive of the European Union (EU), said some human cases of disease in Turkey were also caused by an avian influenza virus in accordance with the information provided by the Turkish authorities and confirmed Friday by a World Health Organization (WHO)-collaborating laboratory in Britain.

    In order to clarify the epidemiological situation, the EC said laboratory tests were still being carried out in the EU and WHO-collaborating laboratories.

    The EC, together with the WHO and other international organizations, were visiting the affected areas in Turkey on Saturday for further investigation.

    In the meantime, the EC re-stated that the complete ban on any import from Turkey of live birds and poultry products adopted in early October 2005 remains in place.

    It was reported that the bird flu outbreaks in Turkey have so far led to three deaths, igniting widespread alert across Europe. Enditem