China: Bird flu outbreak looms
2006-02-26 08:23
Beijing - China on Sunday warned the public of a possible "massive" bird flu, and said the country's agriculture officials were on high alert.
The announcement came as China reported that two more people - who had both been around sick or dead birds - had died from the H5N1 bird flu strain, and that there was a new poultry outbreak in the country's east.
"In view of the current situation, the possibility of a massive outbreak could not be ruled out," the official Xinhua News Agency on Sunday quoted Agriculture Minister Du Qinglin as saying.
Du said on Saturday in China's legislature that all agricultural departments would be on high alert, conduct epidemic monitoring and boost poultry vaccinating and virus testing, according to Xinhua.
The latest report also cited Du as announcing that China culled 22 571 000 fowl in 2005 to curb bird flu, that about 163,100 had been found to have been infected with H5N1 and that 154,600 of them had died from it.
The report said 31 outbreaks had been reported among poultry and one among migratory birds last year.
"The outbreaks hit 13 provinces and 32 counties, but all of them were controlled without any large-scale virus spreading," Xinhua quoted Du as saying.
- SAPA