Bird flu outbreak on Iraqi farm And the Ministry of Health is reassured.

Iraq's Agriculture Ministry on Friday denied reports of a highly contagious strain of avian influenza on a farm southeast of Baghdad.

"The Ministry of Agriculture denies the registration of any new strain of bird flu, as the Veterinary Department and its central laboratories confirmed that no new strain has been diagnosed with the disease, and the injuries it has previously diagnosed are of the same strain as H5N8," The Ministry's Technical Undersecretary Charter Abdul Hussein told the Iraqi News Agency.

"The Veterinary Department is constantly investigating diseases in poultry fields and sending samples to central veterinary laboratories from all provinces, and any information concerning the diagnosis of any epidemic disease will be announced by the Ministry of Agriculture through its official channels," he said.

"We assure citizens that information about the registration of a highly contagious strain of bird flu is incorrect," he said.

Iraq has recorded an outbreak of a highly contagious strain of H5N8 avian influenza on a farm southeast of Baghdad, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) said today.

The Paris-based organization said in a report from its representative in Iraq that last month's outbreak at a poultry farm in Wasit province killed 24,060 of the farm's 158,000 birds.