Ducks at a fresh market in Taipei wait to be slaughtered January 29, 2004. Taiwan found new cases of H5N2, a milder strain of avian flu, in ducks in the southwestern county of Yunlin on Thursday and plans to cull 10,000 ducks in a bid to stop the spread of the disease. (REUTERS/Simon Kwong)
PARIS – Iran reported two outbreaks of the highly contagious H5N8 bird flu virus at farms located in the Tehran region, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday, citing a report from the Iranian agriculture ministry.
The outbreaks killed some 5,600 birds out of a total of nearly 283,500 on the farms, the OIE said in a report posted on its website. All animals were killed or slaughtered.
"A post outbreak investigation to trace the source of infection is ongoing to detect the probable spread and circulation of this subtype," the ministry said in the report.
The H5N8 virus has never been found in humans but has infected wild birds and farms in several European countries as well as in Israel over the past weeks.
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