January 23, 2007

Three dead birds test positive for bird flu

Three dead birds found earlier in Hong Kong have tested positive for the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the government said Monday (Jan 22).

The three birds were a Japanese white-eye, a house crow and a white-backed munia, the government said in a statement.

All three were found in Hong Kong's Kowloon peninsula, which adjoins the Chinese mainland.

Bird flu has killed or prompted the culling of millions of birds across Asia since 2003.

Hong Kong hasn't reported a major outbreak since 1997, although there have been occasional cases of the disease.

Hong Kong has detected sporadic cases in dead birds this year since a dead scaly-breasted munia tested positive earlier this month.

Hong Kong tested 11,000 birds for the H5 strain of bird flu in 2006 and 17 were positive.