Riyadh: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, has announced that one case of highly-pathogenic H5N8 bird flu virus was reported on a poultry farm in the capital Riyadh.
Dr. Abdullah Aba Al Khail, the ministry’s spokesperson, said that emergency teams were able to control the outbreak after implementing standard operationing procedures of the emergency plan on site.
The case was the first outbreak of the H5N8 virus in Saudi Arabia since July 2018.
Dr. Aba Al Khail said this type only infects birds and does not pose a threat to human health, recalling that this type of bird flu was registered in the Kingdom and was controlled in 2017.
