SHANGHAI, China – China has discovered two new bird flu outbreaks among poultry in the northwestern Xinjiang region and the central province of Hunan, the Agriculture Ministry said Tuesday.
About 300 poultry died in Shanshan county in Xinjiang on Nov. 22 and regional experts confirmed on Nov. 25 that they were stricken by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, the ministry said in a report posted on its Web site.
In Yongzhou city, Hunan province, about 400 birds died on Nov. 18 and the cause was determined on Nov. 25 to be the same strain of bird flu, the ministry said.
It said that 52,000 birds were culled within a 3 kilometer (2 mile) radius of the Shanshan County outbreak, and 13,500 within the same area surrounding the Yongzhou outbreak.
The report did not say what type of poultry were sickened by bird flu.
Authorities were conducting emergency vaccinations, it said.
China has reported 24 outbreaks of bird flu among poultry in recent weeks. It has reported three confirmed human cases of the disease, two of them fatal.
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