March 8, 2007

China's Guangdong denies it is the source of flu virus

Health officials in Guangdong province denied the findings of a US university study that said their region was the source of the various strains of the deadly bird flu virus, state media said Wednesday.

The China Daily quoted He Xia, a spokeswoman for the agricultural department in Guangdong province, as saying that the findings were misguided and lack credibility.

Yu Dewen, a provincial health spokesman, said no official research had shown that bird flu originated in the southern province, the paper said.

Researchers at the University of California at Irvine, using genetic and geographic data, identified Guangdong as the source of many strains of the H5N1 virus in a study published on Monday.

From 192 samples gathered from Europe and Asia, the researchers concluded that Guangdong, was the source of many of the H5N1 strains that subsequently spread around China and around the world.