AFP

Iranian veterinary officials put a bird inside a suffocating tank in January 2006. Iran has said that 135 wild swans found dead at the Caspian Sea coast have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, the first cases of the virus to be confirmed in the Islamic republic.

Iran has said that 135 wild swans found dead at the Caspian Sea coast have tested positive for the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain of bird flu, the first cases of the virus to be confirmed in the Islamic republic.

But officials insisted that the virus had not yet appeared in Iran’s food chain and that there has not been any cases of human contractions.

“Highly pathogenic avian influenza has been detected in 135 wild swans in two places in the Anzali wetlands in northern Iran,” Iranian veterinary chief Hossein Hassani told the official news agency IRNA.

“There are no cases in any other parts of the country. Nothing has been detected in the free-range or factory-bred birds. There is no concern about human contraction,” he asserted.

On Tuesday, the veterinary service said that, pending further tests, the wild swans found in the northern province of Gilan had only been confirmed as having the broad H5 virus category, which only kills birds.

Iranian health and veterinary officials have been on high alert since the deadly avian flu struck neighboring Turkey, with tens of thousands of domestic birds destroyed along the border.

People have also been urged not to travel to Turkey, while border markets have been closed and vehicles disinfected at border checkpoints.

The H5N1 strain has claimed at least 90 lives, mostly of Asians, since late 2003. It has now spread to Africa and Europe.

Experts fear the virus could mutate into a strain that could be transmitted easily among humans, circumstances that could cause a global pandemic that could kill millions of people.