Bird flu strains have hit poultry flocks in a number of countries across the world in recent years JEDDAH: The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture on Sunday announced that no cases of H5N8 avian flu have been recorded in the Kingdom in the past 24 hours. In its daily briefing, the ministry affirmed that the number of samples collected from the Kingdom’s regions since the beginning of the spread of the disease reached 14,096. The results disclosed that 182 of these samples tested positive. As many as 5,182 birds were culled in the past 24 hours ending Sunday. Bird flu strains have hit poultry flocks in a number of countries across the world in recent years, with some types of the disease also causing human infections and deaths. H5N8 is highly pathogenic to birds (high death rates) and was first discovered in Ireland in 1983. Since then it has been reported in numerous locations around the world. This strain, however, has not caused any human infections so far anywhere in the world. AN,