Tularemia, casued by Francisella tularensis, is a zoonotic disease presenting variousclinical forms. In the present study, three outbreaks of tularemia occurred fromJanuary to March and September in 2004 (first and second) and January to March in2005 (third) are reported from the north-eastern part of Turkey. All cases originatedfrom the same geographical location. In total, 56 patients having complaints of fever,malaise, chills and shivering, painful sore throat with swollen tonsils and enlargedcervical lymph nodes were affected and the patients were different in all cases.Forty-four, 7 and 5 people were affected in the first, second and third outbreak,respectively. The sera from all patients were analysed for the presence of F. tularensisantibodies using a microagglutination assay. Overall, of the 56 sera analysed, 39 (33, 3and 3 were from the first, second and third outbreak, respectively) showed antibodytitres of 1/160 and/or more against F. tularensis. The current report suggests thattularemia exists in north-eastern part of Turkey. The clinical manifestation of thecurrent cases were similar to those of oropharyngeal form of tularemia. It is consideredthat this region should be accepted as an endemic area for tularemia and kept undercontrol for a long period
