Jordan on alert for bird flu

Jordan is trying to prevent an outbreak of bird flu from crossing over from Saudi Arabia.

Jordan has raised its state of alert to its highest level and resumed field inspections of bird farms and poultry stores, KUNA reported Saturday.

Under the alert, non-processed livestock from Saudi Arabia is banned from entering Jordan, the Kuwait news agency reported.

Saudi Arabia reported culling thousands of birds after finding four outbreaks of the H5N1 strain of the disease on a farm about 50 miles south of Riyadh. The birds ordered destroyed included 13,500 ostriches at a farm.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International