New Outbreak of Bird flu Reported In China

BEIJING: China, which has been one of the countries to be worst hit by the bird flu, have confirmed a new outbreak of the virulent H5N1 strain of the disease in Shanxi province on Monday.

The officials with the Ministry of Agriculture said that the outbreak was identified after an indefinite number of chickens died in poultry farms in Changzi County. The officials have also mentioned that they have sent the samples of the dead birds to the National bird flu laboratory where the H5N1 strain has been identified.

The local government has quarantined the infected area, sending in experts and veterinarians to start culling poultry in the area to prevent possible new outbreaks in an emergency response. The local veterinarian department so as to educate the locals on how to protect themselves against the virus has also stepped up the publicity campaigns.

According to the official news agencies the Ministry of Agriculture has meanwhile also sent a team of experts to Changzi, and has reported the case to the international organisations. Jia Youling, the chief veterinary officer of China had warned only last week that virus was on the rise with a total of 1,168 migratory birds found dead in Qinghai and Tibet as on the 1st of June. He further clarified that the disease was now striking more species of bird than last year, and noted that the Ministry of Agriculture would target migration paths for future supervision.

China had earlier recorded more than 30 outbreaks of bird flu since last October. The last outbreak occurred in the Xinjiang, and the Uygur Autonomous Region early this month and the government had claimed that in that case the outbreak was contained just two days after the confirmation of the strain. The last human case of bird flu was confirmed on June 15 in south China's Guangdong Province that had brought the country's total number of human infections to 19 of which 12 have died.