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Ukraine Takes Measures to Halt Bird Flu Outbreak in Crimea

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Ukrainian authorities have imposed a quarantine on districts of Crimea affected by the country's first outbreak of bird flu.

Officials ordered the slaughter of all poultry in five affected villages after officials confirmed the discovery of dead birds infected with an H5 strain of bird flu. Authorities are now sending samples to Britain and Italy to determine whether it is the deadly H5N1 strain that has killed nearly 70 people in Asia since 2003.

In Indonesia, officials said the World Health Organization has confirmed the country's eighth human death from bird flu.

The officials said Saturday tests conducted at a laboratory in Hong Kong show that a 25-year-old woman who died earlier this week had the H5N1 strain.

Health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that could be easily transmitted between humans and kill millions of people.

Some information for this report provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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