China's agriculture minister warned over the weekend of a possible widespread outbreak of bird flu after reporting two new human cases involving the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus.
Fourteen people across China have been infected with bird flu since October, and eight of the victims have died.
"In view of the current situation, the possibility of a massive bird flu outbreak cannot be ruled out," Agriculture Minister Du Qinglin said on Saturday.
He called for agricultural authorities to remain on "high alert" and step up disease monitoring and vaccination.
Bird flu outbreaks in poultry occurred in 32 areas of China last year, killing 163,100 chickens, ducks and other fowl. Authorities destroyed 22.6 million birds to keep the virus from spreading, Du said in a briefing for Chinese legislators.
The latest human cases are a 9-year-old Zhejiang Province girl and a 26-year-old woman farmer in Anhui Province. Both were hospitalized yesterday in critical condition with fever and pneumonia, the Health Ministry reported.
The Zhejiang girl, surnamed You, lives in Anji County. She began running a fever and showed symptoms of pneumonia on February 10 and has been hospitalized ever since.
According to investigation, You visited relatives twice in Anhui Province's Guangde County before falling ill. During her visits, chickens raised at her relatives' homes became sick, and some died.
The source of You's infection remains under investigation, the ministry said.
You's samples tested positive for the H5N1 strain of bird flu at both the Zhejiang Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention and China's national CDC.
The farm woman, identified only by the surname Wang, lives in Anhui's Yingshang County. She developed fever and pneumonia symptoms on February 11.
Wang had been in contact with sick and dead poultry, according to investigators. The local agricultural department isolated the H5N1 virus strain from samples of dead chickens in Yingshang County, the ministry said.
Wang's samples tested positive for H5N1 at the Anhui Province and national CDC.
People who had been in close contact with You and Wang have been put under observation by local health authorities. So far, no abnormal symptoms have been reported.
In Anhui's Yingshang County, inspection teams from the Ministry of Agriculture and provincial agricultural authorities found 13 dead chickens in Jitai Village on February 22. the H5N1 virus was isolated from samples of four of the dead birds.
The local government slaughtered more than 200 birds in the area and intensified disease prevention measures.
The epidemic there is under control, and no further spread has been reported, the ministry said.
Mao Qun'an, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, told a news conference earlier this month there is no evidence to suggest that China's bird flu virus has mutated to a form that can spread between humans. Studies show the avian flu virus isolated from China's human cases still bears distinct avian features that are far different from the human flu virus.
(Xinhua)