A concerning international report has raised the alarm in Iraq after announcing the outbreak of a "highly infectious" strain of bird flu in certain regions of the country, while the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture has denied these reports.
The World Organization for Animal Health stated that Iraq has recorded an outbreak of the highly infectious strain of bird flu, "H5N8," in a farm southeast of Baghdad. The Paris-based organization reported from its representative in Iraq that the outbreak last month at a poultry farm in Wasit Province resulted in the death of 24,060 birds out of 158,000 in the farm.
In response, Muthaq Abdul Hussein, the technical agent of the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture, told the Iraqi News Agency: "The Ministry of Agriculture denies the registration of any new strains of bird flu, as the Veterinary Directorate and its central laboratories confirmed that no new strains of the disease were diagnosed, and the infections previously identified are of the same strain 'H5N8'."
He added: "The Veterinary Directorate is continuously monitoring diseases in poultry fields and sends samples to the central veterinary laboratories from all provinces, and any information regarding the diagnosis of any epidemic disease will be announced by the Ministry of Agriculture through its official channels." He reassured citizens that the information regarding the registration of a highly infectious strain of bird flu is not accurate.
