S.Africa Says Bird Flu Strain Not Lethal to Humans

South Africa said on Friday its outbreak of bird flu was not a strain that killed 24 people in Asia, but it halted all poultry exports as a precaution.

South Africa said on Friday its outbreak of bird flu was not a strain that killed 24 people in Asia, but it halted all poultry exports as a precaution.”The Department of Agriculture has voluntarily stopped exports of poultry and poultry products from South Africa until the outbreak has been dealt with successfully,” the department said in a statement.It identified the outbreak as the H5N2 strain — highly dangerous for birds, but not the H5N1 strain that can kill people and decimated Asian poultry stocks earlier this year. (Source: Reuters, August 2004)