China detects no bird flu outbreaks among poultry

China has detected no bird flu outbreaks among poultry in the provinces where eight people have been infected this year, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday (February 6).

The Food and Agriculture Organization's senior technical adviser on bird flu in China, Vincent Martin, said Chinese authorities on Thursday reported to the agency the findings of extensive testing in the seven provinces.

"The Ministry of Agriculture in China has been extremely pro-active in investigating the situation in domestic poultry in provinces where these cases have occurred," Martin said.

"So far, despite a large number of samples from poultry being collected and laboratory tested, no evidence of infection in poultry has been found to explain these human cases."

Before meeting with Chinese agriculture ministry officials, Martin raised concerns about bird flu possibly circulating among poultry and said he was waiting for authorities to report to him the findings of their investigations.

The state-run China Daily newspaper also reported on Friday the agriculture ministry confirming there had been no outbreaks of bird flu among poultry in China this year.

Eight people contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus in China this year - five of whom died - compared with just three cases in all of 2008.

A total of 25 people have died from avian influenza in China since the disease re-emerged in 2003, according to World Health Organization figures.