Jia Youling, China's chief veterinarian and director of the Veterinary Bureau of Ministry of Agriculture, Friday denied the existence and spread of a new strain of H5N1 bird flu in the country's Fujian Province as was reported by a science journal in the United States.

"In fact, there's no such thing as a new Fujian strain at all," Jia said at a news conference hosted by the press office of the State Council.

"The date used in the article is not true," Jia said. "Its method of research is not scientific. Its conclusion can not be established and is completely against the facts."

He was referring to a recent article on the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which says the new strain has already spread to Malaysia, the Laos and Thailand and may lead to a major outbreak in Asia and Europe.

About 47,000 poultry birds died in ten outbreaks of bird flu in seven provinces on the Chinese mainland this year, said Jia. Another 2.94 million birds were culled. A total of 3,641 migratory birds in west China's Qinghai Province and Tibet Autonomous Region had died of the disease this year, he said.

The number of cases of human infection by bird flu was 13 this year and seven in 2005. 

(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2006)