November 21, 2005

China reports its 16th, 17th bird flu cases in poultry
 

China on Monday reported its 16th and 17th bird flu outbreaks in poultry in a central province and the country's far western regions despite a massive effort to vaccinate all of the country's billions of farm birds.

A total of 3,676 birds died in the outbreaks in the western region of Xinjiang and Hubei province and another 7,002 were destroyed in an effort to contain the virus, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The outbreaks began Nov 15 in Xinjiang and Nov 16 in Hubei, Xinhua said.

China has reported new bird flu outbreaks in poultry almost daily despite an effort launched last week to vaccinate all of the country's 14 billion chickens, ducks and other farm birds.

Experts say migrating geese and other wild birds probably are spreading the virus.

The country has reported two confirmed bird flu cases in humans-one of whom died-and a suspected case in a 12-year-old girl, who died.