Chinese Apparent Transparency in Report on Avian Flu

China reports bird flu outbreak, second for the week
04 Oct 2006 08:51:15 GMT

BEIJING, Oct 4 (Reuters) - An outbreak of bird flu has killed 1,000 domestic poultry in a village in China's northwest, state television said on Wednesday, a day after the report of another outbreak in a nearby region.

The Agriculture Ministry said scientists had confirmed that the poultry near Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia region, were killed by the H5N1 avian flu virus, China Central Television reported.

Another 72,930 fowl were culled to stop the virus spreading, it said.

"Now the outbreak has been effectively controlled," it added.

On Tuesday, Beijing authorities banned poultry from an area in Inner Mongolia, a region neighbouring Ningxia, after a thousand birds there died from bird flu.

The H5N1 virus has spread through much of Asia's poultry flocks and infected large numbers of wild birds, particularly water fowl, which can act as carriers of the virus.

Bird flu has since spread to Europe, Africa and South Asia, killing at least 148 people worldwide since late 2003, when the virus resurfaced in Southeast Asia.

Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that could pass easily from person to person, sparking a global pandemic.

With the world's biggest poultry population and millions of backyard birds roaming free, China is at the centre of the fight against bird flu. There have been 21 human cases, including 14 deaths, from virus and dozens of outbreaks in birds that have led to the culling of millions of fowl.

The latest report did not mention any human infections, nor explain the source of the outbreak.

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