China rushes in vaccine after deadly bird flu found

BEIJING - China has rushed more than three million doses of bird flu vaccine to a remote western province after migratory birds were found dead from the H5N1 strain which can be fatal to humans, state media said on Monday.

Poultry across Qinghai province, neighbouring Tibet and Xinjiang, had become the "target of a compulsory vaccination campaign", the China Daily newspaper said.

Scientists had proved that the virus had killed scores of geese in Qinghai in early May, media said at the weekend, the first report of H5N1 detected in China since last year.

There had been no reports of the virus spreading to humans or domestic fowl in Qinghai, the Beijing News said. The area where the dead geese were found had been sealed off for 10 days.

The H5N1 strain has killed 37 Vietnamese, 12 Thais and four Cambodians since it swept across large parts of Asia in late 2003.

The World Health Organisation said last week the spate of human bird flu cases in Vietnam this year suggests the deadly virus may be mutating in ways that are making it more capable of being passed between humans.

- REUTERS