May 19, 2006

China rules out bird flu in 30,000 chicken deaths

China's agriculture ministry on Thursday (May 18) said it was not bird flu but badly administered vaccinations that killed 30,000 chickens in the northeast city of Dalian last month.

The Agriculture Ministry said unskilled workers had bungled the vaccinations and said neither bad vaccines nor feed poisoning were possible causes.

China has promised it would be more open in dealing with the bird flu outbreak, at the behest of various international, especially the UN FAO.

The farm, operated by the Dalian Hanwei Group, housed 600,000 chickens, the ministry said in a statement. Operations have resumed.