China's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) on Monday confirmed an outbreak of bird flu at a farm in a Tibet Autonomous Region village.

The testing of 268 dead chickens at a farm at Zhuba Village of Qamdo County in recent days revealed H5N1 bird flu killed them, the National Bird Flu Reference Laboratory said.

On Friday, Tibet's major animal disease prevention and control headquarter office reported the epidemic to the ministry. Along with the local government, the ministry immediately started emergency plans.

The disease had previously been under control, the ministry said.

The latest outbreak was the sixth among poultry this year. On Thursday, the ministry lifted a bird flu quarantine in the southern city of Guangzhou after no new cases were reported for 21 days.

At least 632 fowl were culled after an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus on March 13 in Liwan District, Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

The ministry urged local authorities to step up supervision and prevention measures and raise public awareness to prevent new outbreaks.

Besides Guangdong, other outbreaks included one in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, two in the southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region and another in the southwestern Guizhou Province.

Bird flu, or avian influenza, is a contagious disease of animal origin caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. It can also kill humans.

On February 25, a 44-year-old woman surnamed Zhang in Haifeng County, Guangdong, was killed by the H5N1 strain of the virus. This raised the total number of human bird flu cases since 2005 in China to 29, of which 19 have been fatal, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

To curb human infections, China's food and drug regulators on Wednesday authorized a domestic pharmaceutical firm to begin commercial production of a human bird flu vaccine, after more than two years of clinical trials.

This step made China the second country with the technology and industrial capacity to produce such a vaccine.

The MOA last month warned China faced a more "complicated" epidemic control situation this year with an increase in reported cases.

The disease was also spreading in other countries.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) on Monday confirmed a new outbreak of bird flu at a duck farm in the country's southwest and said it was investigating two other possible cases days after reporting an outbreak at nearby chicken farms.

ROK's Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said 6,500 ducks at a family-run farm in Jeongeup, 268 kilometers south of Seoul, were culled and buried over the weekend.

The case was the second confirmed outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in ROK this year.

Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety suspended all poultry products from the ROK on Monday evening after its announcement of the new bird flu outbreak.

India also confirmed on Monday the year's second outbreak of bird flu in Tripura. The northeast state would cull around 20,000 birds starting on Tuesday.

More than 3,000 chickens, ducks, crows and other birds had reportedly died in the past two weeks. The Indian government has banned the sale and consumption of poultry and poultry products in the affected areas.

Scientists said the latest outbreaks in April were worrisome as the H5N1 strain usually appeared during the time of migratory bird's movement in winter.

They fear the bird flu virus may mutate into a form that could pass easily from person to person, sparking a global pandemic.

A 19-year-old Egyptian man died of bird flu on Saturday. According to the World Health Organization, bird flu had killed more than 230 globally since 2003.

The disease could be more than a health problem as rising global grain and animal feed prices could combine with the epidemic to drive poultry farmers and chicken meat processors out of business in some countries, experts said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2008)