Sally Furniss
Well-known member
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday ruled out bird flu as the cause of death of 30,000 chickens in the northeast city of Dalian last month, blaming badly administered vaccinations by unskilled workers.
The Agriculture Ministry also ruled out bad vaccines or feed poisoning as the cause.
China, which has reported 12 human deaths from the H5N1 bird flu strain and almost 40 outbreaks in birds across a dozen provinces over the past year, has vowed to be more open in dealing with the disease.
Authorities have been on the lookout for outbreaks of the H5N1 bird flu virus on farms, which experts fear may evolve into a form passed easily from human to human and trigger a pandemic, killing millions of people.
The farm, operated by the Dalian Hanwei Group, kept some 600,000 chickens, the ministry said in a statement faxed to Reuters, and breeding was back to normal.
Last week, a local government in southwestern China sacked five officials who ignored reports of suspected bird flu outbreaks.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new..._0_UK-BIRDFLU-CHINA-DENIAL.xml&archived=False
The Agriculture Ministry also ruled out bad vaccines or feed poisoning as the cause.
China, which has reported 12 human deaths from the H5N1 bird flu strain and almost 40 outbreaks in birds across a dozen provinces over the past year, has vowed to be more open in dealing with the disease.
Authorities have been on the lookout for outbreaks of the H5N1 bird flu virus on farms, which experts fear may evolve into a form passed easily from human to human and trigger a pandemic, killing millions of people.
The farm, operated by the Dalian Hanwei Group, kept some 600,000 chickens, the ministry said in a statement faxed to Reuters, and breeding was back to normal.
Last week, a local government in southwestern China sacked five officials who ignored reports of suspected bird flu outbreaks.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/new..._0_UK-BIRDFLU-CHINA-DENIAL.xml&archived=False