August 12, 2005

China inoculates poultry to fight Tibetan bird flu

China has quarantined a farm in Tibet and conducted emergency inoculations on poultry within a five-km radius, after discovering a strain of bird flu likely to be the pathogenic H5N1 on a farm in suburban Lhasa, capital of Tibet.

More than 2,600 chickens on the farm, which belongs to the country's Regional Institute of Animal Husbandry Science, had been culled.

The region also tightened its monitoring of all breeding farms in Lhasa and started a daily pandemic reporting system.

No other cases had been reported in the region, a regional bureau of agriculture and animal husbandry spokesman said.

Vaccines for waterfowls have also been distributed to all areas across Tibet except the Ngari prefecture.