By NNN-KUNA
Tehran : Iranian Health Minister Karman Bagheri affirmed here Monday that no bird flu case has been discovered in the country so far.
He told reporters that no bird flu cases have been found in the past 10 months, noting that health experts have been conducting experiments to locate the bird flu after the disease was discovered in neighboring countries to Iran.
Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 can cause illness in humans and many other animal species.
The global spread of highly pathogenic H5N1 in birds is considered a significant pandemic threat.
While other H5N1 strains are known, they are significantly different from a current, highly pathogenic H5N1 strain on a genetic level, making the global spread of this new strain unprecedented. The H5N1 strain is a fast-mutating, highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAI) found in multiple bird species. It is both epizootic (an epidemic in non-humans) and panzootic (a disease affecting animals of many species especially over a wide area).