Israel Battling Annual Bird Flu Outbreak

The highly contagious "bird flu" virus has been detected in a bird at Moshav Ram-On, south of the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel, for the second time in recent weeks. The detection of such a virus mandates the culling of all birds within a 10- kilometer (six-mile) distance from the site of the outbreak.

Outbreaks of bird flu are an annual occurrence in Israel since 2006, and usually spike during migration season when wild birds from Europe stop over in Israel on their way south to spend the winter months in Africa.

Large and increasingly severe outbreaks of the virus have been detected in dozens of countries around the world over the past several years, resulting in the deaths of billions of wild and domesticated fowl. There have also been cases detected of the virus in mammals including cows.