# 1674
With the Pakistani general elections just two days away, and that country wracked by political violence these past few weeks, it is a bit of a surprise we are getting any bird flu related news out of that country this weekend.
Many of the local press reports over the past two weeks have been propaganda and misinformation, designed to reassure an already uneasy public.
Luckily we still get occasional reporting from International news agencies like Reuters.
Pakistan confirms new bird flu outbreak in NWFP
Sat 16 Feb 2008, 12:11 GMT
ISLAMABAD, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities have detected an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in chickens in a part of the northwest where the country recently had its first human death from the virus, a government official said on Saturday.
The new outbreak was found in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the official said.
"Samples from a poultry farm sent to us from Abbottabad have tested positive for the virus," Food and Agriculture Ministry official Rafiq-ul-Usmani said, referring to a town in the province. "We have already started culling at the farm."
Several outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of avian influenza in poultry and other birds have been found in NWFP and the capital, Islamabad, since it was first detected in Pakistan in early 2006.
