April 23, 2012

Northwest China reports H5N1 bird flu outbreak

The northwestern Ningxia Hui autonomous region of China has discovered a case of the highly epidemic H5N1 bird flu virus in poultry, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) said Wednesday (Apr 18).

More than 23,000 chickens at several farms in a village of Touying town in the city of Guyuan in Ningxia showed symptoms of suspected avian flu Friday and the National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed the epidemic was a H5N1 bird flu case after testing samples collected at those sites, according to the MOA.

The body said in a statement that a total of 95,000 chickens have been culled after the H5N1 bird flu case was confirmed.

"The epidemic is under control now," it said, as a team was dispatched to the quarantined area to guide epidemic prevention.