由于土耳其近日发现禽流感疫情，正在该国巡演的保加利亚某马戏团内的一群鸽子于10月13日被有关部门禁止返回祖国。

    据路透社10月14日报道，近几个月来，这20只鸽子一直跟随着一家名叫巴尔干斯基父子的马戏团在土耳其进行巡回演出。由于上周末土耳其以及保加利亚的北方邻国罗马尼亚均报告发现禽流感疫情，所以保加利亚首都索非亚已经禁止从上述两国进口活的鸟类和家禽，这样一来，那群鸽子自然也就被拒绝入境了。

    保加利亚边境管理人员米哈伊洛夫表示：“对于那家马戏团来说，这的确是一个不幸的消息。他们在将那些动物带出国境时曾经得到了有关方面的许可，但在其就要回国时却碰巧赶上了这条禁令。在该禁令被解除之前，做为这批动物的所有者，他们或许可以在土耳其请一些人来帮忙照看那些鸟儿。”

    由于它与罗马尼亚和土耳其处于同一条候鸟迁徙路线上，保加利亚被认为有可能成为禽流感疫情的下一个爆发地。为防止疫情的爆发，目前该国政府已经在其边境以及靠近海岸线和多瑙河两岸湿地的农场里加强了相关检查措施。13日，欧盟官员已经宣布在土耳其发现的禽流感病毒为具有高致病性的H5N1型病毒，此病毒已在亚洲造成60余人及数百万只鸟儿死亡。对罗马尼亚出现的禽流感病毒的检测目前正在进行之中。

    A flock of Bulgarian circus doves was barred from returning home on Thursday because of an outbreak of avian flu in Turkey.

    The 20 doves had been on tour in Bulgaria's southern Black Sea neighbor for several months with the Balkanski & Sons Circus as part of a menagerie that also includes horses and Siberian tigers.

    But they were refused re-entry after Sofia banned imports of live birds and poultry from Turkey and its northern neighbor Romania after both reported cases of bird flu last weekend.

    "This is really unfortunate for the circus. They had permission to take the animals out of the country, but the time of their return coincided with the ban," border control inspector Atanas Mihailov told Reuters.

    "The owner will probably find someone to take care of the birds in Turkey until the ban is lifted."

    Bulgaria -- seen as a potential next destination for the flu because it lies on similar migratory bird routes as Romania and Turkey -- has stepped up checks at borders and farms near its coastal and Danube river wetlands to forestall any outbreak.

    Earlier on Thursday, the European Union's executive said the flu discovered in Turkey was the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, which has killed more than 60 people and caused the death of millions of birds in Asia. Tests are still pending on Romania's outbreak.