Bird flu reappears in Pakistan

Islamabad (dpa) - A fresh outbreak of avian flu was confirmed in the Pakistani cities of Rawalpindi and Mansehra, a year after thousands of birds were culled to contain the disease, news reports said Wednesday.

Forty chickens at a farm in Islamabad's twin city Rawalpindi died of the H5N1 strain or were killed while infected, according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock. Other cases in peacocks were detected in Mansehra, which is located in the North-West Frontier Province.

The region was where authorities started a preventive cull of some 40,000 birds in February 2006, costing poultry farmers and related industries almost 200 million dollars. Experts fear the disease could mutate and infect the human population, causing a global pandemic that would wipe out hundreds of millions of people.

According to latest figures released by the World Health Organization, the H5N1 strain has claimed the lives of 163 people, mainly in Asian countries.

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