The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) announced on Tuesday that it had confirmed a new bird flu case among poultry in southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region.

The National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory confirmed on Tuesday that the case that had affected Jiedexiu Town, Gongga County, on Jan. 25 was caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 subtype avian influenza virus, the MOA said.

The outbreak killed 1,000 birds and led to the culling of another13,080. No human infections were reported.

Bird flu control and prevention efforts were going smoothly, the MOA stated. It said that it had sent experts to coordinate these efforts as the local government blocked off the infected region and stepped up quarantine and oversight to contain the outbreak.

The outbreak came less than a month after another case in Turpan, in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, killed 4,850 birds and resulted in the culling of another 29,383.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2008)