January 8, 2008

China says bird flu outbreak in north-west under control

A bird flu outbreak in north-west China has been brought under control, state media said on Tuesday (January 8, 2008).

There have been no cases of human infection, and farmers who had contact with the poultry have been quarantined and have shown no symptoms, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The outbreak has killed 4,850 poultry in Turpan, a city in China's Xinjiang region, since late December, and a state laboratory confirmed the presence of the virulent H5N1 virus.

About 35,000 birds in the city were slaughtered as a precaution, Xinhua said. The birds had stayed in the north and not migrated south because of a warm winter, Xinhua cited officials as saying.

The last reported outbreak in poultry occurred in September, when 9,830 ducks died in southern China near Hong Kong.