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Bird flu confirmed in Iraqi girlWednesday, February 1, 2006Meatingplace.com Bird flu confirmed in Iraqi girl, birds in Cyprus by Ann Bagel on 1/31/2006 for Meatingplace.com A 15-year-old girl from the village of Raniya, Iraq, about 60 miles south of the Turkish border and 15 miles west of Iran, has become the first confirmed case of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in the Middle East. Shangen Abdul Qader died Jan. 17, just 10 days before her 50-year-old uncle died of similar symptoms. Tests are underway to determine whether or not the man died of the virus. The girl's mother denied that her daughter died from bird flu, although she did acknowledge that a number of her chickens had died mysteriously before the girl's death. Iraqi health authorities have started killing domestic birds in northern Iraq, which borders Turkey, where at least 21 cases of the deadly virus have been detected. Iraq and Turkey also lie on a migratory path for numerous species of birds. H5N1 found in birds in Cyprus A hen and a fighting cock in northern Cyprus died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, tests have confirmed. The birds were from the village of Makrasyka, or Incirli in Turkish, approximately 11 miles east of the coastal town of Famagusta, which has been quarantined. |