Asian nations move to suspend poultry imports from the United States after bird flu was detected in Delaware.

About 12,000 chickens were destroyed on a farm in the northeastern US state of Delaware, prompting Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea to slap temporary import bans on imports of US poultry.

China's Ministry of Agriculture meanwhile confirmed Friday that six more outbreaks of the highly contagious H5N1 strain of bird flu had been reported across the country. The new cases were found in Hubei, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hunan, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces.

The ministry also said it had received reports of new suspected bird flu outbreaks in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guangdong province in south China. This brings the total number of confirmed and suspected bird flu outbreaks across China to 34. The cases were found in 13 regions.

Local governments in the latest affected areas immediately began culling poultry and took quarantine measures. They also submitted samples to the National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory.

In another development, the World Health Organization has said that further tests on suspect cases of bird flu in Vietnam had shown the virus hadn't yet reached a stage where it could move easily between humans.

(CRI February 8, 2004)