KARACHI, April 9: The government on Monday reported new bird flu cases in poultry farms in Sindh and the North West Frontier Province. “Two to three days back we found traces of H5N1 virus in small poultry farms in Sindh and the NWFP,” said Mohammad Afzal, Commissioner for Livestock at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

“We have culled all the birds at these farms and disinfected the area.”

He said some 300 to 350 birds had been culled at one farm but did not say how many H5N1 cases of bird flu had been discovered.

Since late last year, outbreaks of avian flu have swept from Asia to Britain, as well as touching Egypt and Nigeria.

Mr Afzal said quarantine and vaccination measures were also being used in and around the affected farms.

Pakistan first detected the H5N1 strain of the virus in Feb 2006 in the NWFP and ordered about 40,000 birds culled.

Since 2003, the H5N1 virus has killed at least 170 people around the globe and experts fear it could mutate into a form that could jump easily between people and cause a pandemic.—Reuters