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Tibet can now be added to the list of countries this year with outbreaks of the H5N1 virus in birds. This isn't the first time Tibet has reported the H5N1 virus, the first known outbreak was recorded in the spring of 2005.
Tibet reports bird flu outbreak
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-07 14:46Bird flu has struck a poultry market in the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa, prompting the culling of nearly 7,000 birds, the government said today.
The outbreak of the deadly H5N1 virus, which began March 1 in Lhasa's Chengguan village, killed 680 chickens and prompted the culling of 6,990 birds, The Associated Press said today, citing Xinhua news agency.
The Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday that the market has since been shut down and authorities were trying to determine the source of the infection. It was possible that the chicken were infected through contact with migrating wild birds, it said.
The government report, submitted by China's Ministry of Agriculture, also gave details of five H5N1 bird flu outbreaks among migratory birds in Tibet and neighboring Qinghai in April and May of last year. The five outbreaks killed 3,648 birds, including bar-headed geese, brown-headed gulls, crows, hawks and other wild birds, it said.
Xinhua reported on the earlier outbreaks last year but did not give specific details.
Qinghai is a known transit point for migratory birds, and the virus killed thousands of bar-headed geese at a nature reserve in the province in mid-2005, raising fears that the virus was on the move, jumping among hosts in the wild.
