SAMARRA, Iraq — Bird flu is killing hundreds of thousands of chickens in Salahaddin's Samarra.

The disease, also known as the avian influenza, has swept through local farms.

"Initially, infections started slowly. The flu then spread rapidly and reached a level that, within four days, only 2,000 chickens were left," said chicken farmer Ihsan Mahmood.

Samarra's mayor Mahmood Khalaf told Rudaw that 111,000 chickens have died.

"There might be more infections, and a higher death toll. Most of the deaths are in the al-Jazeera area, and our teams are there now."

Surviving chickens have been placed in quarantine.

Doctors have tested farm workers to see if the virus can be transmitted to humans.

"We have come here to get samples from workers at the chicken farms and send them to the general laboratory in Baghdad, so we can be sure whether or not it can be transmitted to humans," said Dr Sajad Kadhim of Samarra's health directorate.

Kurdistan Region authorities have banned exports from the south and closed chicken farms in response to the virus' spread.

In an interview with Rudaw’s Sagar Abdulrahman on Sunday, Begard Talabani, the Kurdistan Region’s minister of agriculture and water resources, said no cases of bird fly have been confirmed in the Region’s farms.

“We have a ministerial committee to battle animal diseases. We held a meeting today and talked about this issue. We have decided to have direct contact with the Kurdistan Region’s chicken farm owners to know the health condition of our farms. We also decided to fund a budget for any unexpected situation, so we can control it as soon as possible.”

“We will also take some measures to prevent imports at border customs with the southern provinces where the flu has spread.”/agencies