August 16, 2006

Bird flu kills thousands of ducks in China

Almost 2,000 ducks have died from bird flu at a farm in central China and authorities have culled more than 210,000 ducks in the past few days.

The Xinhua news agency reports just over 1,800 ducks have died at the farm in the capital of Hunan province, since the first poultry death was reported in early August.

China has reported more than 40 bird flu outbreaks in the past year.

On Monday, the Health Ministry confirmed a farmer in the northwestern region of Xinjiang died in early July from the H5N1 strain, bringing the nationwide bird flu death toll to 14.