Saudi Arabia Report of H5N1 Bird Flu Virus

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Agriculture has ordered 15,700 ostriches to be culled. A new "bird flu " The find was found on a poultry farm which housed the Ostriches - a bird generally native to Australia. After extensive testing in European labs it appears that the infection found in this large poultry is that of a deadly strain of bird flu.

The H5N1 Saudi Ostrich outbreak is of concern as precedes the Hajj - the pilgrimage in which Muslims are obligated to travel to Mecca . The religious tourists arrive from all over the globe. Had the H5N1 poultry virus spread among the travelers the spread world wide to the western industrialized countries as well as Moslem countries - some with very high population rates - such as Bangladesh and Pakistan could of been of major concern analogous to the flu pandemic of the early 20th century.