Originally published November 10 2005
New bird flu outbreak hits China and Vietnam
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
China has reported its fourth outbreak in the last three weeks, while Vietnam killed poultry showing signs of the virus in the province of Bac Giang.
China and Vietnam today confirmed new bird flu outbreaks, while Japanese authorities said 180,000 chickens would be killed after signs of the virus were found at a farm.
China's latest outbreak - the fourth in the past three weeks - killed almost 9,000 chickens on October 26 in Badaohao village in Liaoning province east of Beijing, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The outbreak prompted authorities to destroy 369,900 other birds in the region, Xinhua reported, citing the country's Agriculture Ministry as the source.
This came despite efforts to tighten controls on China's 5.2bn chickens, ducks and other poultry; a report on the World Organisation for Animal Health website states that nearly 14m chickens have been vaccinated in the province.
No human cases have been reported in China, but authorities warn that human infection is inevitable if the government can't prevent repeated outbreaks in poultry.
In Vietnam, more than 3,000 poultry died or were culled this week in three villages in Bac Giang province, nearly 35 miles northeast of Hanoi, said provincial vice chairman Nguyen Dang.
"We expect more outbreaks, not just in Bac Giang, but also in other provinces," said Hoang Van Nam, deputy director of the Animal Health department.
In Japan, authorities said antibody testing had found that chickens at a farm in Ibaraki state had been exposed to a virus of the H5 strain, and that 180,000 birds would be culled.
In Australia, a man who returned from China complaining of shortness of breath was rushed to the hospital with a possible case of bird flu, but he tested negative for the virus, a health official said.
In its battle to control the disease, Beijing authorities created an anti-flu task force this week and a 2bn yuan (�141.5m) fund to pay for anti-disease work.
They have also ordered hospitals to report data on flu cases daily to the government, Xinhua said.
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