Kuwait on Thursday announced to find two new cases of the H5N1 strain of bird flu, raising the total number of the cases to 41, local KUNA news agency reported.

A dead chicken and an infected hawk was proved positive in a H5N1 virus test, Health Ministry spokesman Ahmad al-Shatti was quoted as saying.

Till Tuesday, Kuwait had detected 39 bird flu cases since last Sunday.

Al-Shatti called on people to inform the authorities about suspected bird flu cases in a bid to nip any possible outbreak in bud.

He, however, affirmed that no human cases were discovered as lab tests for 60 workers at the farms where bird flu outbreak took place was made out negative.

Earlier on Thursday, a medical official called for preventing the outbreak of the avian flu virus by refraining from direct contact with all poultry and wild birds and by using disinfectants to maintain cleanliness at poultry farms.

Source: Xinhua