ANKARA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Turkish authorities culled nearly 600 poultry in villages near the Black Sea coast on Wednesday after an outbreak of bird flu was reported there.

The Agriculture Ministry said checkpoints had been set up at the entrance to the villages and six culling centres had been built in Zonguldak province, where authorities identified the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain in chickens on Tuesday.

"Culling work has been completed. A total of 570 chickens, 14 ducks and two geese have been culled and buried," the ministry said in a statement.

There are no reports of new cases, it said, adding that it believed the virus had spread to the poultry from wild ducks.

Turkey lies on the migratory route for wild birds flying south from Scandinavia and Siberia to north Africa for winter.

Four people died from bird flu in eastern Turkey in 2006 after they came into contact with sick birds.

Although bird flu remains an animal disease, experts fear the virus could mutate into a form easily passed from human to human and kill millions.

An outbreak of bird flu in the winter of 2006 hit Turkey's tourism industry and seriously damaged the poultry sector. (Reporting by Selcuk Gokoluk, Editing by Peter Blackburn)

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