Nearly a month after its first bird flu case was noticed in a southeastern border region, Nepal’s Agriculture Ministry announced, on Wednesday, that the country is free of bird flu.

On January 16, the health ministry declared that chickens near Kakadbhitta, 400 km south of the capital Katmandu, were found positive for the H5N1 virus, the first confirmed case in the country.

Health ministry spokesman Hari Dahal said that thousands of chickens, ducks and other poultry birds have been culled around Kakadbhitta, a town bordering India, to free the region from the deathliest strain of avian flu.

“We can safely say that Nepal is free of bird flu,” Dahal said, adding there have been no reports of humans affected.

After a number of reported epidemics, Nepal banned Indian poultry imports last year, but chickens are still routinely smuggled over the border.

According to the latest WHO report, bird flu has killed 251 people globally since 2003.

The report also said that the H5N1 virus continues to destroy poultry stocks throughout the world.

The strains of influenza viruses that cause flu in birds do not normally affect human beings. But, recently there have been many people who have caught a strain of influenza virus called H5N1 from infected birds. This causes a severe illness with a high death rate. The H5N1 strain of virus does not pass from human to human. However, there is fear that it may change and then be able to spread easily from human to human. If this happens, it may cause a serious flu pandemic.