Ankara, Turkey ? Turkey raced to contain an outbreak of bird flu Tuesday, destroying 300,000 fowl and blaring warnings from mosque loudspeakers, after preliminary tests showed at least 15 people have been infected with the deadly H5N1 strain.

As the country recorded the first human deaths outside eastern Asia, jittery European governments stepped up border checks and hosed down Turkish trucks with disinfectant.

Fifteen cases in one week is a record for the current bird flu outbreak. Never before has such a high number of cases been seen in such a short time in Asia, where 78 people have died since 2003.

Underscoring the vulnerability neighboring countries feel, Bulgaria began issuing its citizens special instructions on how to deal with an outbreak.

A Turkish Health ministry official runs after a chicken as he tries to collect poultry for culling in Istanbul. Turkey is destroying 300,000 fowl as tests show at least 15 people have been infected with bird flu.

Turkey’s government, anxious to demonstrate to its citizens and the European Union that it was taking decisive action, ordered more than 300,000 fowl destroyed as a precaution. Health officials said Tuesday most of the 70 or so people hospitalized with flu-like symptoms had tested negative for bird flu.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed the notion that “an idea of panic was created, as though the country was invaded.”

“Everything is under control,” he said, adding that Turkey had no shortage of vaccine or medicines.