BEIJING, Nov. 11 Kyodo

Chinese agriculture officials reported late Thursday 300 more chickens have died from avian influenza in Liaoning Province in northeast China, where a string of bird flu cases have been reported since last month.

The Ministry of Agriculture said it had confirmed a Sunday report of mass deaths among domestic chickens in four villages of Beining, part of the northeastern coastal city Jinzhou, was from the H5N1 virus, which has spread to humans in other countries.

Local authorities killed 2.5 million more poultry within a 3-kilometer radius after the Beining discovery, the ministry said in a statement.

They also took legally required quarantine, disinfection and immunization measures.

On Wednesday, China reported 1,100 other poultry had died in two Liaoning Province villages, including one in Jinzhou.

And Oct. 26, the government said 8,940 poultry from another village in the province died of bird flu.

Also this fall, China has reported poultry bird flu outbreaks in Anhui and Hunan provinces plus the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

China and the World Health Organization are checking to see whether an Anhui girl who died near a flu outbreak site had contracted avian influenza.

China has no reported cases of human infection of bird flu, which have occurred in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia since late 2003, with at least 62 of 121 patients dying.

Wild birds have been blamed for spreading the flu in China.

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