KUALA LUMPUR: China's northwest region of Xinjiang has reportedly culled some 150,000 chickens after an outbreak of bird flu, agriculture ministry officials reported on Monday night. The H5N1 avian flu outbreak has already killed over 1,500 chickens and made ill another 6,000, the ministry said. The area has now been quarantined in an effort to ensure the virus does not spread and the chickens were culled, the ministry said in a statement. The outbreak occurred on June 20 but was only confirmed as H5N1 bird flu on Monday, it said. The ministry and state press did not specify exactly where the outbreak occurred, but said it happened at a farm run by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, described by state media as a semi-military government organisation of about 2.5 million people. According to officials, no human being has thus farm been reported to have become infected by the virus, but experts believe only through a human case would the virus have been discovered.
