China reports sixth bird flu outbreak in a month

Shanghai. November 10. INTERFAX-CHINA - The Chinese government reported two new outbreaks of bird flu and the second case in a week in the northeastern Liaoning Province on Wednesday, raising the country's outbreaks to six in a month.

On Sunday, 1,100 chickens were found dead in two villages and a total of 500,000 poultry were culled within 3 kilometers of the bird flu sites near Fuxin city and Jinzhou city in Liaoning Province, according to a statement from China's Ministry of Agriculture.

The China Bird Flu Reference Laboratory confirmed Wednesday the deaths were caused by the deadly H5N1 subtype of the bird flu virus.

The new outbreaks come just six days after an earlier report of a bird flu outbreak in the Liaoning province. Additionally, the government is still investigating whether three people, including one girl who died, may have contracted the deadly strain of the virus.

These were the fifth and sixth bird flu outbreaks in China since an outbreak was reported in Inner Mongolia on October 19. The other outbreaks were in Anhui, Hunan and Liaoning provinces.

The Ministry of Agriculture said the local government has adopted emergency measures including vaccination, culling and disinfection to control and prevent the bird flu epidemic.