November 22, 2007

Yemen tests dead poultry for bird flu

Yemeni officials tested farm birds for the deadly H5N1 strain after several people reported deaths of poultry at their farms.

Agriculture official said that it will take some time for the results to come in. Meanwhile, the government banned all imports from countries with confirmed cases.

The official confirmed that the dead birds were found in several parts of Yemen. However, he did not specify the exact locations.

The neighbouring Saudi Arabia culled 220,000 birds since last week after an outbreak in the central region of the kingdom was detected.