Blood tests have eliminated bird flu as the cause of the death of a girl in central China's Hunan Province, health officials said yesterday.

The girl had flu-like symptoms before she died in a village where a bird flu outbreak had been reported.

But tests on her blood sample were negative for the bird flu virus, according to the provincial center for disease prevention and control.

Doctors said she died of pneumonia with acute respiratory distress and heart failure.

Twelve-year-old He Yin felt sick after eating with her brother smoke-dried meat from a chicken that died from bird flu.

She was sent to the Provincial Children's Hospital on October 16 and died the next day.

The girl was a native of Wantang Village, in Hunan's Xiangtan County, where the latest outbreak of bird flu was reported several days ago.

The national bird flu lab on Tuesday verified the outbreak as H5N1 virus, which has killed 545 poultry.

All poultry in the affected area have been killed and deeply buried. Neighborhood flocks have been given vaccines.

The girl's brother also felt sick on October 17 and the hospital diagnosed his illness with symptoms of fever and cough as bronchial pneumonia.

Blood tests on the 9-year-old boy and his mother also were negative for the bird flu virus, the disease prevention and control center said.

The boy's temperature has been normal for seven consecutive days and his condition is stable.

Experts from the Ministry of Health arrived in Hunan yesterday to further diagnose the cases and are expected to offer a final report today.

Bird flu outbreaks have been reported in five Chinese provinces and regions.

Health Minister Gao Qiang told a meeting in Canada on Tuesday that China has set up 192 flu monitoring stations nationwide.

The ministry will send doctors and experts to asses the health of local people if a monitoring station reports evidence of a bird flu outbreak.

In southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where China's first case of the lethal H5N1 strain was found in January, all poultry in stock have been vaccinated.

The autonomous region bordering Vietnam breeds 800 million poultry a year.

The regional government has sent quarantine officers to 230 border entrances to check imports of poultry, birds and marine products.

At the Dongxing Customs, a road checkpoint linking Guangxi to Vietnam, the carpet in the hallway has been sprinkled with antiseptic liquid to disinfect passengers' shoes.

In Liangying Village, in Tianchang City of east China's Anhui Province, a recent H5N1 outbreak left 550 poultry dead and 44,736 others were then destroyed. All poultry farms in the city have vaccinated their stock.

The area is quarantined and villagers are under medical observation in case of human infection.