RIYADH, 16 November 2007 — Poultry workers, who recently came into contact with birds carrying the bird flu virus in Al-Kharj, 150 kilometers south of Riyadh, tested negative to the virus, the Ministry of Health recently announced in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.
The ministry also added that all of the 50,000 birds at the farm were culled and that the measures were taken after the death of 1,500 birds at the farm caused by the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
The Ministry of Agriculture is also investigating the source of the disease and has taken steps to guarantee that the disease does not affect other farms in the area.
The ministry has also called upon poultry farmers to strictly implement safety regulations. The Kingdom had banned all live poultry imports after bird flu was last detected in at a farm in the Eastern Province.
