(chinadaily.com.cn/AP)
Updated: 2005-11-04 09:26

China reported its fourth bird flu outbreak in three weeks Thursday, saying the virus killed nearly 9,000 chickens in a northeastern village, prompting authorities to cull 369,900 poultry.

The outbreak occurred October 26 in Gangtai village in the town of Badaohao, in Heishan county of Liaoning province in northeast China, the Agriculture Ministry said in a report posted on its website on Thursday.

China's chief veterinary officer with the Ministry of Agriculture, Jia Youling, displays Friday October 28 a map showing migrations routes for wild birds that have been found to carry bird flu. [AP]

The report came despite Chinese government efforts to tighten controls on the country's vast poultry flocks and vaccinate millions of birds.

Authorities also found 20 dead magpies and other wild birds, said the report by the ministry's Veterinary Bureau.

Local veterinarians initially suspected Newcastle disease, another poultry infection, but laboratory tests showed it was the H5 strain of bird flu on November 1, and the test finding was confirmed by the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory on November 3, the report said.

Heishan county is located on the East Asia-Australia bird migrating route, experts believe this outbreak was likely caused by migrating birds.

In addition to cull 369,900 poultry, 13.9 million more poulty were immuned in an emergent action. The report said Agriculture Ministr Du Qinglin, leading an expert group, has arrived at the outbreak area to direct the bird flu control efforts.

The H5 strain is not the same type that has proven deadly to humans. The H5N1 strain began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia and jumped from birds to people in late 2003. Since then, it has killed at least 62 people in Southeast Asia.

It said officials quarantined the area and ordered the vaccination of 13.9 million poultry in Liaoning.

China's first reported bird flu case in the latest round of outbreaks occurred Oct. 14 on a farm in the northern region of Inner Mongolia.

Other outbreaks were reported in Anhui province in the east and in Hunan in central China. No human cases have been reported.

At each outbreak site, the government has destroyed thousands of chickens and ducks in an effort to contain the virus.

The government this week ordered authorities throughout the country to step up disease monitoring and announced the creation of a $250 million fund to finance anti-bird flu work.