KUWAIT, March 2 (Reuters) - Kuwait's health ministry said on Friday it had found two new cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in a chicken and a falcon, bringing to 41 the number of birds infected with the virus in the Gulf Arab country.

Sixty handlers and their families have tested negative for the disease, and Kuwait is closing poultry shops in residential areas for three months in a campaign to curb its spread, health ministry official Ahmed al-Shatti told Reuters.

Kuwait confirmed 39 cases of bird flu last month but said 20 of them were in falcons at the zoo and a farm in the south of the country. The rest were domestic birds caged in people's yards.

Kuwait closed the bird section of the zoo and banned the import of live birds after last month's outbreak, the first in two years. It last reported a case of bird flu in a flamingo in 2005.

Avian flu has killed 167 people since 2003, according to the U.N. World Health Organisation. At least 200 million birds have died or been slaughtered because of the disease.

AlertNet news is provided by

Delicio.us  |   Digg  |   NewsVine  |   Reddit                                                                                  Permalink