January 28, 2008

China lifts bird flu quarantine in Xinjiang

Authorities in western China lifted a bird flu quarantine Sunday after no new outbreaks were reported.

No cases of human infection were reported in the Xinjiang province outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus strain, the Agriculture Ministry reported, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The outbreak has killed 4,850 poultry around the city of Turpan since late December.

The lifting of the quarantine came 21 days after some 35,000 birds were ordered slaughtered to prevent the virus from spreading, Xinhua said. Farms in the area have been disinfected, and workers who came into contact with sick birds showed no sign of infection, it said.

China's last reported H5N1 outbreak in poultry occurred in September, when 9,830 ducks died in southern China near Hong Kong.

Last week, authorities confirmed that a father and son who were sickened with bird flu were the country's first infections within the same family, but said their cases showed no evidence that the virus has changed into a form that can easily be passed between humans.