BAGHDAD, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Governor of Salahudin province in Iraq said Friday that bird flu was detected in the city of Samarra, while the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture confirmed that all protective measures were taken to contain the spread of the virus.

"The laboratory tests proved that poultry in Samarra, some 120 km north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, was infected with bird flu," Ammar Khalil, governor of the province, said in a statement.

Khalil said that about 60,000 chickens were infected with bird flu in the city, calling on poultry owners and citizens in Samarra to be on the highest alert to confront the virus, according to the statement.

The Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture said in a separate statement that it had taken all protective measures to prevent the spread of the detected H5N8 strain of avian influenza virus to other poultry fields in Salahudin province.

It said that after the discovery of the infection in two poultry fields in Samarra, the ministry's Veterinary Department held a meeting, and an emergency plan was approved to control the disease.

The ministry pointed out that all the chickens in the fields infected with the virus were culled, and the fields' halls were sanitized, in addition to blocking and scanning 3 km of areas surrounding the fields. Enditem

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