The outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in South Khorasan has become "dangerous".

Following the increasing spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in several provinces of Iran, South Khorasan has now become one of the most dangerous areas in this regard, with 19 outbreak centers.

According to ISNA news agency, Bahman Naghibi, Deputy Director of Health and Prevention of Livestock and Poultry Diseases at the Iranian Veterinary Organization, announced on Monday that 33 outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have been identified in the country.

On Tuesday, Mohammad Asgharzadeh, Director General of Veterinary Medicine of South Khorasan, told ISNA that out of 33 outbreak centers in the country, 19 are currently located in South Khorasan Province, particularly in Birjand and Khusf.

Avian influenza is a common disease between humans and birds, the virus of which is mostly transmitted to humans through contact with sick birds or the feces of sick birds, but a few cases of human-to-human transmission have also been recorded.

On Tuesday, Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy director of health at Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, told ISNA news agency in a meeting: "If the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus recombines with highly pathogenic human influenza, a large-scale pandemic could occur in society, and there is currently concern about this."

According to reports, this virus causes many deaths worldwide every year, and its spread in some areas is a serious threat to human health.

Reports also indicate that with the culling of 923,140 birds in South Khorasan industrial units, many of these units, which are 30 or 40 years old, have now gone bankrupt.

The South Khorasan Governorate's Crisis Management Department has announced that a number of these units "do not have the necessary information regarding insurance."

Previously, Jabbar Kouchkinejad, deputy chairman of the Environment Faction of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, had warned about the possibility of Tehran citizens contracting highly pathogenic avian influenza, referring to the death of several migratory birds around Chitgar Lake in Tehran.

In 2017, Mehr News Agency reported that the highly contagious bird flu disease in Iran had become a "major challenge" and cited "inadequate measures by government agencies" as the main factor behind the spread of the disease and the extermination of more than 40 percent of poultry farms in Iran.

Source: Radio Farda