The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has received a report from the government on the current bird flu outbreak in Qinghai Province, an official from the organization's Chinese Representative Office said in Beijing on Monday.
The official said they have reported back to the FAO headquarters and the Ministry of Agriculture to the World Organization for Animal Health.
The ministry said last Saturday that the national bird flu reference laboratory had confirmed that deaths of migratory birds in Niannaisuoma Village, Gangcha County in Qinghai were caused by the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Central government immediately allocated 3 million doses of avian flu vaccine to inoculate domestic birds in the province, and the local government took emergency measures by closing off selected areas to reduce contact between people, poultry and wild birds.
Quarantine and vaccination measures have been adopted, and the ministry has sent a group of experts to the area to guide the work.
Dang Chenyan, director of local animal epidemic prevention headquarters, said that inoculation work was completed in the affected area on Saturday afternoon, and continues elsewhere in the province.
This is the first report of detection of the H5N1 virus in China since the country successfully brought 50 cases of bird flu under control last year.
The virus in Qinghai hasn't spread to people or poultry so far, said the government.
(Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2005)
