The national bird flu reference laboratory confirmed on Tuesday that the latest death of chickens in east China's Anhui Province was caused by the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu virus.

The case happened at a chicken farm of the Juchao District, Chaohu City, Anhui Province.

Officials with the Ministry of Agriculture said that the ministry received the report of chicken death on July 3 and soon dispatched a group of experts to the affected area to guide relevant works of prevention and control of the disease.

Sources from the ministry said that the local government has made necessary measures of slaughter or quarantine to prevent a spread, and sent samples to the authorities. It has also isolated the area following the death report in accordance with China's Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention.

The local health authority killed all the poultry within a 3 km radius of the chicken farm and vaccinated all the poultry within a 5 km radius of the affected area.

Experts of the ministry said the farm is located on a slope in a rather separate environment close to the wide Chaohu Lake and all the chicks are bought from the local markets, where no avian flu case had been reported before.

The experts estimated that the virus might be spread by migrants or wild water birds.

The ministry has informed the case to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), relevant authorities of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The ministry confirmed the first contraction of H5N1 strain of bird flu on January 27 at a duck farm in the Dingdang Township, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

On March 16, the authority lifted quarantine on the last two affected areas in Lhasa of Tibet and Nanning, Guangxi's capital city.

During the period of time, altogether 49 cases of bird flu were confirmed and controlled. So far, no human contraction was reported.

(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2004)