By Jason Gale
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Avian flu killed wild birds on Genggahu Lake in central China, veterinary officials said, in an outbreak reminiscent of bird deaths in 2005 that heralded the virus’s spread to Europe.
Birds began dying in the province of Qinghai from the H5N1 avian influenza strain on May 8, Zhang Zhongqui, deputy director general of China’s Animal Disease Control Centre in Beijing, said in a May 17 report to the World Organization for Animal Health. Zhang said 121 birds died and 600 more are susceptible to the infection, the first recorded outbreak since June 2006.
The H5N1 virus, which has killed 261 of the 424 people known to have been infected, spread to Europe and the Middle East from late 2005. Some scientists said the strain was almost identical to a variant found at China’s Qinghai Lake, where more than 6,000 wild birds died in April 2005.
The World Health Organization has said it’s concerned an outbreak of swine flu that has spread to 40 countries could become more lethal if that virus swaps genes with the H5N1 avian flu strain.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 18, 2009
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