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ERBIL, Kurdistan
(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.
Reuters
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