Turkish medical staff on Friday tested nine people for possible bird flu a day after European health officials confirmed what many had long feared - the arrival of the deadly H5N1 strain on Europe's doorstep.
European Union experts held crisis talks on the spread of the bird flu to examine the risk that migratory birds might pose for the 25-nation bloc.
The meeting was expected to approve measures to combat the spread of the disease by requiring EU member states to reduce contact between poultry and wild birds in high risk areas, the EU Commission said. This could include keeping poultry indoors.
The spread of the disease from Asia was a "troubling sign", US Health Secretary Mike Leavitt said, and the world must work harder to prepare for a potential flu pandemic among humans.
The European Commission said on Thursday the bird flu outbreak in Turkey was indeed H5N1 and advised Europe to prepare for a pandemic.
Turkish health officials kept nine people from the western town of Turgutlu under observation and carried out tests after the death of 40 of their pigeons, state-run Anatolian news agency said.
"Acting on a tip-off, we took the family which owned the pigeons and the neighbours who made the tip-off, in all nine people, to the hospital," the agency quoted local health official Osman Ozturk as saying.
No human cases of the disease have been reported in Europe and the major threat of a human pandemic is still in Asia, experts believe. Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Asia since 2003.
Turkey has bird flu in its poultry but Romania must now wait another 24 hours because of a customs delay to find out if it also has the same virulent H5N1 strain.
The European Commission said the meeting of experts in Brussels would run from 0830 GMT to 1830 GMT.
The World Health Organisation in Geneva said the spread of the virus to the fringes of Europe has increased the chances of human cases.
"It represents a call to arms on human health," Mike Ryan, director of WHO's alert and response operations, told Reuters.
In Germany, media reported that surgeries were inundated with people seeking vaccination against normal strains of flu, and a surge in demand for anti-viral drugs. Poland also reported demand for flu jabs was rising.
Romania is on edge after having sent bird flu samples to Britain for testing to determine whether the virus found in three ducks in the Danube Delta last week was H5N1.
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