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China confirms outbreak of bird flu in Lhasa

AFP

A vet injects a duck with bird flu vaccine at a farm in Shangsi county, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on 4 February 2009. China’s Ministry of Agriculture had found the H5N1 virus, which can be fatal to humans, in poultry sold at a wholesale market in Lhasa on 12 April.File photo/Reuters/China Daily/China

Chinese officials had confirmed the outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu among poultry in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, state media reported today, quoting the ministry of agriculture.

The Xinhua news agency reported that the H5N1 virus, which can be fatal to humans, had been found in poultry sold at a wholesale market in Lhasa on 12 April.

“Emergency measures have been taken and the epidemic has been brought under control,” with 1,679 birds culled, the ministry was quoted as saying.

No one who came into contact with the infected poultry had shown any signs of illness, the report said.

China reported its first bird flu outbreak among poultry this year in February in the Xinjiang, in the far northwest of the country.

Twenty-five people have died from bird flu in China since the disease re-emerged in 2003, according to latest World Health Organisation figures.

Copyright © 2009 AFP

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