Mohammed Sur Abdallah died on January 26, a little over a week after the death of his neice, and his samples were sent for testing to the World Health Organization facility in Cairo.

The samples will now be sent for further testing to London, but an official with the Kurdish health department told AFP the Cairo tests showed the uncle, who lived in close proximity to his neice, had died of the virus.

Two teams of experts from the WHO have been sent to Iraq's Kurdish provinces to help forestall an outbreak of the deadly avian flu which is already present in neighboring Turkey.