Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ARBIL, Iraq, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Two chickens in the Kurdish region
of northern Iraq have been found to have a strain of avian flu but experts
said it was not the deadly H5N1 strain, a regional government official said
on Saturday.
Azad Ezzidin, agriculture minister for the Kurdistan region, said
two suspected cases had been investigated and the dead birds sent to Cairo
for tests by the World Health Organisation.
"They officially said that it was not the deadly strain," Ezzidin
said.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed more than 60 people in four
Asian countries -- Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Scientists say H5N1 is mutating steadily and may eventually acquire
the changes it needs to be easily transmitted from human to human.
Migrating wildfowl can carry the virus and they are believed to be
the main cause of H5N1's spread across Asia and into Europe, although this
has not yet been proven.
Iraq said on Thursday it was banning imports of poultry and poultry
products from 20 countries as bird flu fears rise after cases were confirmed
in neighbouring Turkey.
of northern Iraq have been found to have a strain of avian flu but experts
said it was not the deadly H5N1 strain, a regional government official said
on Saturday.
Azad Ezzidin, agriculture minister for the Kurdistan region, said
two suspected cases had been investigated and the dead birds sent to Cairo
for tests by the World Health Organisation.
"They officially said that it was not the deadly strain," Ezzidin
said.
The H5N1 avian flu virus has killed more than 60 people in four
Asian countries -- Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.
Scientists say H5N1 is mutating steadily and may eventually acquire
the changes it needs to be easily transmitted from human to human.
Migrating wildfowl can carry the virus and they are believed to be
the main cause of H5N1's spread across Asia and into Europe, although this
has not yet been proven.
Iraq said on Thursday it was banning imports of poultry and poultry
products from 20 countries as bird flu fears rise after cases were confirmed
in neighbouring Turkey.