Afghan health ministry officials began culling operations following the detection of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in chicken in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

Serge Verniau, of the Food and Agriculture Organization responsible for Afghanistan said that samples taken from Jalalabad have tested positive for H5N1 strain. However he added that the strain of bird flu found in Kunar is yet to be confirmed.

Health Ministry Deputy Faizullah Kakar said that the area has been quarantined. Doctors rushed to the province on discovering that a person was showing symptoms of f bird flu, but found that he was suffering from malaria.

H5N1 bird flu was last detected in the country in Kabul and the provinces of Kapisa, Logar and Nangarhar in April and May last year. However no human infections have been reported from the country.

According to the World Health Organization, bird flu has killed 167 people so far ever since it resurfaced in Asia in 2003. Scientists fear that if the H5N1 strain mutates into an easily transmissible form between humans, then a worldwide pandemic could result, killing millions of people.

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