China's Ministry of Agriculture said Saturday the viruses of H5N1 from suspected bird flu carcases have distinctive geographic features, and are remote in kin relationship to those that hit Hong Kong in 1997.

Quoting a report from the National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory, the ministry said that four strains of the H5N1 virus were taken from bird carcases suspected of carrying bird flu in Long'an County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, Wuxue city in Hubei Province, and Wugang city in Hunan Province.

Gene sequencing of the four strains has been completed, and initial analysis of the results indicates the viruses are distinctively related to their geographic locations, and are remote in kinship to the strains of H5N1 II bird flu virus separated in Hong Kong in 1997, according to a spokesman with the ministry on the fight against the bird flu.

On China's mainland, the highly infectious H5N1 strain of bird flu can only be examined and confirmed by the National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory, based in Harbin, the capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

(Xinhua News Agency February 13, 2004)