October 5, 2006

China reports bird flu outbreak in north-west Ningxia region

An outbreak of bird flu has killed 1,000 domestic poultry in a village in China's northwest, state television said on Wednesday, a day after the report of another outbreak in a nearby region.

The Agriculture Ministry said scientists had confirmed that the poultry near Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia region, were killed by the H5N1 bird flu virus, China's media reported.

Nearly 73,000 fowl were culled to stop the virus from spreading it said, adding that the outbreak is under control.

On Tuesday, Beijing authorities banned poultry from an area in Inner Mongolia, a region neighbouring Ningxia, after a thousand birds there died from bird flu.

The bird flu virus has spread through much of Asia's poultry flocks and infected large numbers of wild birds.

Scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that could pass easily from person to person, sparking a global pandemic.

With the world's biggest poultry population and millions of backyard birds roaming free, China is struggling in the fight against bird flu. There have been 14 human deaths from the virus and dozens of outbreaks in birds that have led to the culling of millions of fowl.